Tag Archives: community

About IBD Podcast Episode 60 – Managing IBD Is a Team Sport With Dr. Aline Charabaty

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This episode is sponsored by AbbVie.

How do you think about your connection with your gastroenterologist? The patient/physician relationship is important in managing inflammatory bowel disease. I talk with Dr. Aline Charabaty, Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of the IBD Center at Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, and winner of the 2019 Healio Gastroenterology Social Media Influencer Award, about how patients and doctors can better understand one another and better communicate about managing your disease. Find out how doctors can help patients in addition to finding the appropriate treatment for them, including what kinds of questions both groups should be asking, and how we can all move beyond “how many bowel movements” to discuss other issues important in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Want to get ahead of preparations for your next appointment? Try out the Doctor Discussion Guide at crohnsandcolitis.com/podcast.

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Summer of Activism: Navigating Your First Day on the Hill Meeting

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Patient advocacy groups often take part in “Day on the Hill” events. This is when an organization sends a group of people to Washington DC to meet with the offices of federal representatives. I’ve attended several hill day events over the past several years with different patient advocacy groups. At this point, I’m ready to let you know some of my tips and tricks so that when you’re ready to get started and do this work, you’ll be prepared.

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About IBD Podcast Episode 49 – Summer of Activism: Attending Day on the Hill

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How does an IBD patient attend Day on the Hill events and meet with the offices of congressional representatives in Washington DC? What is it like to go to these events? In this episode I describe how I got involved in hill day meetings, why I do it, and what the process is like to attend. I also offer you my tips on how to make the best of the time spent in the capital in order to make the biggest impact on the people who can affect change in the lives of IBD patients.

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10 Ways to Get Your Kids Involved in Activism

Summer of Activism: 10 Ways to Get Your Kids Involved in Advocacy

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We tend to think of politics as being for adults. But how do adults become engaged citizens who take part in their community? They start as children, learning from parents about the importance and benefit of volunteering, voting, and understanding the challenges and opportunities in their community. There’s so much that parents can do to raise children to be active community members. In addition, some of the many skills that are learned along the way, include public speaking, networking, teamwork, strategy, and communication. Continue reading →

Episode 48 - Getting Kids Involved in Activism

About IBD Podcast Episode 48 – Getting Kids Involved in Advocacy

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How young is “too young” to get kids involved in activism? Gastroenterologist and activist Dr Meenakshi Bewtra started her kids on their activism journey at birth and continues by bringing them to marches, voter registration events, and postcard writing parties. Dr Bewtra shares her tips on how you can involve your kids in activism, why you should, and how it might make your life as a parent — and activist — a bit easier.

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Attending Medical Meetings as a Patient

About IBD Podcast Episode 46 – Attending Medical Meetings as a Patient

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For this first episode of my limited series, Summer of Activism, I’m answering a question that I hear regularly: how it is that I go to medical meetings such as Digestive Disease Week, Advances in IBD, or Crohn’s and Colitis Congress. I give you the answer as well as tips on how patients, bloggers, podcasters, and vloggers can work towards attending these, and other, scientific meetings. Here’s a spoiler: it takes dedication to improving the lives of people with IBD, commitment to doing the work consistently, and some professional networking.

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Help for Parents With Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis

About IBD Podcast 39 – Help for Parents With Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis

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How does IBD affect your family? Do you know about the tools and resources that are available to help you on your disease journey? On this episode of About IBD, I talk with the Director of Patient Education and Support at the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, Catherine Soto, who outlines the many tools the Foundation provides for anyone with IBD, including those made just for parents, kids, and teens. I also spoke with Dr Rajeev Jain, who tells me about a new, one-of-a-kind resource for women with IBD who want to be mothers, called the IBD Parenthood Project. And finally I called upon Brooke Abbott, co-founder of IBD Moms, to talk about her role as a patient in developing the IBD Parenthood Project, and she entertains me with a small rant about social media.

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Your Body Is Depending on You to Be Assertive

About IBD Podcast 38 – Your Body Is Depending on You to Be Assertive

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It’s common for people with IBD to look online for patients who have a similar disease journey to their own. For men, however, there are fewer places to find such a peer because there are not as many men in the IBD influencer space as there are women. That’s where Rasheed Clarke, author of Three Tablets Twice Daily, blogger, and ulcerative colitis and j-pouch patient steps in. Hear Rasheed contrast how his running career is different before and after j-pouch surgery, his thoughts on being one of the few male voices in the online IBD community, how we can encourage more men to share their journey, and the wild and wonderful thing he did with a toilet for World IBD Day in 2017.
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Creating Your IBD Elevator Speech

How to Create Your IBD Elevator Speech

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An elevator speech or elevator pitch is a quick summary of a topic that can be given in about under a minute: just enough time to take an elevator ride. It’s usually thought of in a business sense, like a sales pitch or an idea you have that you present to someone in management upon a chance meeting (such as in the elevator). The use has been expanded to mean any prepared and rehearsed speech that you can give quickly on a moment’s notice. The purpose of this article is to guide you on crafting your elevator speech about your inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

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Episode 37 - I Felt a Lot of Guilt

About IBD Podcast 37 – I Felt a Lot of Guilt

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What compels a person to share their personal journey with IBD? For Rasheed Clarke, author of Three Tablets Twice Daily, his writing began as a way to keep track of everything for himself and his healthcare team. It quickly turned into a tool that he used to show those around him the stark realities of a life with IBD: bloody diarrhea and all. His coworkers and friends were shocked to learn how much he was coping with every day but not everyone close to him approved of his honesty. On this episode of About IBD, Rasheed digs into the positives, the negatives, and the responsibilities that come with being an influencer in the IBD space.
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