setting up a support group

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on September 23, 2015 at 22:26

The best place to start for setting up a local support group would be with your sleep clinic.  All the support groups are attached to hospitals, as you need the clinics imput to find the sufferers in  your area.  Many of them are happy to be involved - especially if they have willing patients like yourself to do a lot of their work and form a committee or such like.  Let us know if you get one set up and of course I'll happily promote any events you have to others

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Permalink Reply by Alan Jackson on September 24, 2015 at 12:58

Thanks Kath.

The original approach to me was from the specialist sleep clinic nurse at my last  clinic visit. It appears that there was a support group attached to the clinic some time ago but that seems to have "disappeared" over time, I guess through lack of support.  I will certainly be looking for  further information  from the clinic before making any decision. However one of my thoughts   is  that if we were to proceed, whether a web based support group would  be more user friendly rather than periodic meetings or perhaps a combination of both would be more useful. I'll let you know what happens next. In the meantime if anyone has any further advice please let me know.

AlanJ

Kath Hope said:

The best place to start for setting up a local support group would be with your sleep clinic.  All the support groups are attached to hospitals, as you need the clinics imput to find the sufferers in  your area.  Many of them are happy to be involved - especially if they have willing patients like yourself to do a lot of their work and form a committee or such like.  Let us know if you get one set up and of course I'll happily promote any events you have to others

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on October 1, 2015 at 0:15

Sorry for the unavoidable delay Alan.  It's a shame the old group disappeared, and this sometimes happens.  St James, Leeds had a great group, but that too had to close   Strong backing from your clinic is definitely the right approach as you need them to be able to contact the local sufferers.  I don't really think that web based support works locally, as the few support groups that do have websites don't get much interaction on them.  For web-based support people tend to like forums and Facebook (the Facebook group I run has almost 4,000 members and is very busy).  People like web support because they can speak with people worldwide, but local support groups are very much in demand.  I'm going to two different events in Scotland next month and expecting good turn outs.  It is hard work to set up the local events, but with good support from the clinic and having other local sufferers willing to help out, it's very much appreciated by people.  Good luck if you go with it, and like I said, let me know if  you do and I'll do what I can to get the word out.

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Permalink Reply by 99 on October 1, 2015 at 4:10

Suggestions

Maybe piggybacking onto another event like diabetes or similar may assist

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Permalink Reply by Alan Jackson on October 2, 2015 at 12:53

Thanks Kath  I need to explore just how much support the clinic is prepared to offer. 

Alan Jackson said:

Thanks Kath.

The original approach to me was from the specialist sleep clinic nurse at my last  clinic visit. It appears that there was a support group attached to the clinic some time ago but that seems to have "disappeared" over time, I guess through lack of support.  I will certainly be looking for  further information  from the clinic before making any decision. However one of my thoughts   is  that if we were to proceed, whether a web based support group would  be more user friendly rather than periodic meetings or perhaps a combination of both would be more useful. I'll let you know what happens next. In the meantime if anyone has any further advice please let me know.

AlanJ

Kath Hope said:

The best place to start for setting up a local support group would be with your sleep clinic.  All the support groups are attached to hospitals, as you need the clinics imput to find the sufferers in  your area.  Many of them are happy to be involved - especially if they have willing patients like yourself to do a lot of their work and form a committee or such like.  Let us know if you get one set up and of course I'll happily promote any events you have to others

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on October 5, 2015 at 1:24

You're welcome Alan, and keep me posted

Alan Jackson said:

Thanks Kath  I need to explore just how much support the clinic is prepared to offer. 

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