NRAS 'Stress Matters' Focus Group - Weds 23rd March

[Kim-NRAS]

Dear All

We are currently looking for male participants to take part in a focus group for our new project 'Stress Matters', taking place on Wednesday 23rd March 6:30pm. Please find further information on the project below:

So many people tell us they can pinpoint when their RA began to take hold; it was following a traumatic or stressful event in their lives. Stress seems to also exacerbate symptoms causing flares of inflammatory disease. We all respond to stress in different ways; stress is a part of life and there’s no way of avoiding it completely, but understanding your triggers and potentially how to react to stress can, we hope, reduce the negative impact.

NRAS are beginning to work on new project we’re calling ‘Stress Matters’. The first step is to design a survey to gather, on a large scale, more information about how RA/inflammatory arthritis is potentially triggered or worsened by unmanaged stress. To help us ensure we’re asking the right questions, we will be convening a focus group on Wednesday 23rd March at 6.30pm till 8pm on Zoom.

If you’d like to express interest in participating in this focus group, please email [e-mail] by Wednesday 9th March latest with a brief outline of your background and experience of RA.

*We currently have enough female participants within the focus group, however if you would like to be considered to take part in further parts of the Stress Matters project that will be ongoing throughout 2022, please email [e-mail] with with a brief outline of your background, experience of RA and how stress has impacted your disease.

Thank you

Kim (NRAS)