Legislation reflects what the people want, ONLY if you and enough other people take the time to let your legislators know what you want.

The Arthritis Foundation 2001 Advocacy Summit-Together Making a Difference was held at the Washington Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. on February 25-27. The Summit is designed to help prepare attendees to meet with congress to speak on behalf of millions of Americans facing the daily challenges of arthritis and related conditions. Their goal is to increase federal investments in research, expand public health response of the National Arthritis Action Plan (NAAP) and ensure all persons access to the services they need. Highlight from this event are provided by Vicki Ruffing, arthritis nurse, and Ranjana Sankhala, arthritis patient, both from the Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center.

The first two days of the Summit featured sessions to prepare attendees for their meeting with congress on Tuesday. Topics included:

• access to medications for the Medicare patient
• understanding the legislative process
• how to become an effective advocate
• disability in the work place.

1. Access to medications. The Arthritis Foundation supports legislation to: make drugs available as well as affordable to Medicare beneficiaries and other Americans without adequate prescription coverage; cover new and innovative therapies; and allow patients and doctors to choose what they feel is the most therapeutic.
2. Increased funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC would in turn continue financial support of the National Arthritis Action Plan (NAAP). The NAAP plans and implements public health activities stressing prevention, early diagnosis and treatment, and education on arthritis and related conditions.
3. Children with arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation with the American Juvenile Arthritis Organization, Is asking for: increased funding for research; assure families have the most up-to-date information on treatments; and increase the number of pediatric rheumatologists.

"I guess we can all make a difference together and every little effort to get involved with the foundation and its initiatives counts in improving our lives as well as the lives of others."

The summit started out with representatives from congress providing some insight into the government's initiatives on public health policy, medicare and access to medications, followed by a session on how to be an effective advocate. One of the biggest take-away message for me from this session was the point that 'legislation reflects what the people want ONLY if you and enough other people take the time to let your legislators know what you want'. This session was very inspiring and provided a good understanding of the basic definition of lobbying, the tools used and the insight into how a bill becomes a law. After hearing from the representatives, a 45 minute discussion on disability in the workplace was given by Marian Vessels, the director of the American Disabilities Act (ADA) Information Center for the MidAtlantic region. She did a great job of explaining the ADA and what is and is not covered under the ADA.

I personally benefited a great deal from not only gathering the knowledge about the initiatives that are being taken on a national and regional level to fight these diseases that effect 43 million people, but also by meeting several other people who have had similar experiences and live with pain on a daily basis. It was very comforting to know that there is a big group of people out there putting a tremendous amount of energy and effort into making effective, but expensive, arthritis medications accessible to people who really need them, advocating to congress for funding for additional research and medicare prescription coverage and increasing awareness among people with and without arthritis with programs such as self management instructions, etc.

Anyone interested in helping further the cause of the Arthritis Foundation can find more information by visiting www.arthritis.org/advocacy

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