We continue to explore the collaborative network of Project Factor J, the first curriculum for Italian school promoted by Janssen Italia to educate young men and women on emotional intelligence, respect and empathy towards individuals suffering due to distress and disease. And we do it by turning the word over to the patient associations that hold the educational sessions with schools. Renato Benzi, Coordinator of Human Resources and Volunteers for the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association (AISM) explains how to bolster health education at school.
“It would be fantastic if all schools had the opportunity to insert courses promoting health in their curricula, providing information on nourishment, smoking risk, safe sex, the benefit of sports and opportunities to meet with associations like ours that address specific issues and scientific research. Unfortunately, in 2021, many schools did not have this opportunity, notwithstanding the benefits that it would have for society and youth. We believe that it is important, and that wellbeing and health education should be universal for our young men and women.”
AISM was founded over 50 years ago, when “multiple sclerosis was a mystery and those suffering from this disease experienced a true nightmare. There was no information, therapy or services, only solitude.”
How has our perception of health and disease changed? “If we were to describe all the changes that have occurred since we founded the association, in terms of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, we would end up writing a book!
In recent years, we have undertaken a new challenge: answering the needs of families facing cases of paediatric multiple sclerosis. Today, they represent 2-3% of cases, but we still do not have a treatment for children. MS is a complex pathology and experiencing it as an adolescent is different from living it as an adult. We are armed with our experience, and we have many tools and resources compared to 30 years ago, so we are trying to devise projects addressing our youngest patients and their families.”
The association only joined the Factor J educational alliance this year for the second edition of the project, but we have been working in schools for over 10 years. “The greatest novelty was this collaboration,” Renato Benzi points out enthusiastically. “Multiple sclerosis is a pathology that is diagnosed at a young age – usually 20 to 40 – so dialogue with young men and women is both important and fundamental to our association. We have projects dedicated to youth with MS and for under-35s who wish to volunteer in our “Young” Movement. We hope that more and more projects like Factor J see the light.”
