Juvenile Arthritis Week this year is March 17-24
The theme for 2024 is Early Diagnosis - Early Intervention. Diagnosing juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and related childhood rheumatic diseases (CRDs) earlier is critical to reducing long term pain and disability, and the social and financial impacts shown in JAFA’s 2023 IMPACT Study eg:
- time to diagnosis averages 11-14 months
- (school students) averaged 12-15% missed school days respectively
- 46% required aids for daily living
- low QoL (and lower than comparable chronic diseases)
- high cost to the health system of $24k -$31k per child per year
JAFA initiated Australia’s first-ever Juvenile Arthritis Week (JAW) in 2023. Now, one year later, the momentum is growing and we’re super-excited about running JAW 2024. We hope you’ll join us to celebrate the courage and resilience of the thousands of children, young people and families who deal with the challenges of JIA and CRDs every single day. We salute their strength and perseverance.
During JAW, JAFA will be celebrating with an awareness event in Parliament House, Canberra to launch a new national program - watch this website for details. We’ll be celebrating the first anniversary since we launched the Australian Juvenile Arthritis Registry which already has 300 registrants nationally. And we’re holding Family Hangouts in five capital cities and one regional centre to bring families together to meet and share experiences. See below for details on what you can do to help celebrate JAW ’24.
Get Involved in Juvenile Arthritis Week Activities:
Attend JAFA Family Hangouts
Choose from six locations:
Brisbane – JAFA Facebook Members Event
Canberra – JAFA Facebook Members Event
Sydney – JAFA Facebook Members Event
Port Macquarie – JAFA Facebook Members Event
Adelaide – JAFA Facebook Members Event
Melbourne – JAFA Facebook Members Event
Spread the word
- Download Posters and printables tiles here
- Talk to your local media outlets radio, newspapers,
Share posts from JAFA’s Public Facebook page; Instagram or Linkedin to your networks and community pages
Write to your politician
- Write your local member – tell them your story
- Write to the Health Minister in your State or Territory if you want better access to paediatric rheumatology services
- Write to your local Federal MP to ask them to support JAFA’s budget submission
