The extent to which arthritis affects everyday life at school will vary from child to child and from day to day. Communication between parents, teachers and the child is very important, and building a good relationship with the school and a child’s teacher is key. This is probably the first time the teacher will have come across a child with arthritis.
A recent collaborative piece of work between CCAA, Versus Arthritis and JIA@NRAS has resulted in resources to help with this.
New Individual Healthcare Plan/Individual Education Plan (IHP / IEP) templates have been created for use in any education setting (nursery / schools / college etc) to advocate for anyone being seen by a rheumatology team.
The templates are specific to children/young people with paediatric rheumatological conditions. They contain plentiful tips and ideas to help support children and young people in school/college/nursery and covers all ages. Members may be interested to take a look and refer families / clinicians as appropriate.
CCAA has also produced a short and basic video with one of their volunteers describing how to use the template.