Posts about COVID-19

[Victoria-NRAS]

Hi all

I know that the impact (both known and unknown) of COVID-19 is at the forefront of everyone's minds at the moment, and I'm certainly not going to tell you not to post about it, but at the same time, please can I ask you take a few points into consideration:

1. There will be 'breaking news' on this regularly, but this forum is probably not the best place to post this. People will likely be aware of the best sources of information for keeping up-to-date with the news on this. In the UK this will include the NRAS website, trusted news broadcasters, the government and NHS websites.Your own hospital team will also be involved in updating you as and when this is appropriate.

2. If you are posting about COVID-19, have a look at recent posts to make sure (as much as possible) that you are not posting basically the same discussion as is already taking place on another thread.

3. Whilst this is overwhelmingly big news, it won't be the only thing going on in members' lives that they are concerned about or want to post about, and we don't want posts on other topics to get completely lost in the newsfeed and potentially go unanswered.

4. Your mental health and that of those around you is vitally important. As some have said online, 'self-isolating' in the modern world doesn't mean that you can't socialise, so this forum is one of many means that you have to keep that human contact, whether you are 'self isolating' or simply limiting your contact with people at this time. Limiting the conversation to one topic could be off-putting to people wanting an escape from discussing this, as we are all likely having many conversations about this with family, friends, work colleagues etc.

For any of you who use Facebook, please look up NRAS for information on a live webinar that our Chief Executive is running this evening from 7pm, to help answer some of the most common questions around COVID-19 and RA.

As I said on my post about reporting, I want to reiterate my thanks for everything our lovely forum members do here. When you reply to someone who is feeling lonely, overwhelmed etc you help them to see that they are not alone.

Many thanks for your help and understanding in keeping this forum going, now more than ever.

Victoria

(NRAS)