Within this action line, we have already created a Group and Page of the Association on social networks. Through these channels of communication, registered patients with migraine or cumulative headache exchange views and experiences, share their stories, know each other and realize that they are not alone in this daily fight with headaches. Already every publication made on these pages has an impact on over 2800 people.
2. Update
Informing the general population, as well as informing patients and the State, is the great bet that our Association has put.
Despite the fact that some 1,000,000 people suffer from some form of headache in our country and despite the ongoing efforts of specialized neurologists in this direction, there is a huge lack of information not only in the general population but also in patients, many of which they are still undiagnosed.
Given this situation, the main focus of our actions is information. So we design:
A. General Population Update
• Interviews of members of the Association and doctors in printed and electronic media, radio and television.
• Organizing and holding information days in the major cities of Greece as well as publications in the local press.
• Information stands at major events throughout Greece.
B. Inform Patients
The part of patients requires timely and, most importantly, valid information about developments in health, new therapies, diet, exercise, and psychology.
It is a fact that the internet and mass access to it has helped to some extent in informing patients, but it is estimated that there are a large number of patients who have never visited a doctor and are unaware that the various forms of headache today are quite satisfactory.
So the following actions aim to mobilize patients to seek specialized medical help on the one hand,
• Workshops on issues such as the trigger mechanisms of headaches, their symptoms, new developments in medicine, both in the field of co-morbidity and preventive treatment, and even in the alternative treatment regimes gaining ground abroad.
• The booklet about the most basic headaches, and in an e-book format, that will plainly and comprehensively explain the issue and give the right directions to deal with.
• In our plans is also the creation of a telephone line (Help line) through which the patient can get basic information and directions, such as the most specialized neurologists and head physicians.
C. Informing Doctors
It is a fact that doctors often do not attach great importance to communicating with patients while they consider that patients know more than they actually do. Sometimes patients leave the clinic with unanswered questions. On the other hand, we often find patients who do not consider the size of the problem as important, do not want to change their way and life, refuse to receive medication, and sometimes they hide information from their physician.
The combination of the above makes it difficult for a Doctor-patient communication and ultimately the result is not what the patient expects.
Thus, we aim at informing new doctors about specific headache issues, developing specific guidelines and tools (such as the Migraine Disability Assessment Questionaire) to help doctors and patients make more effective co-operation.
