Pare0010 inside Out – A Photo Campaign to Create Awareness for Young People With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases

Abstract

Background:Inside Out is a photo campaign of Youth-R-Well.com, the organisation for young people (16-30 years) with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) in the Netherlands. The project was inspired by Unga Reumatiker, the youth organisation in Sweden and their campaign #doesntshowdoesntexist. The campaign of Unga Reumatiker showed that young people can suffer from rheumatic diseases, even though these diseases are invisible. Youth-R-Well.com recognized that the invisibility of an RMD can have a major impact on the lives of young people and wanted to create a similar photo campaign to show the invisible side of RMDs.Objectives:The main objective of this project was to create more awareness for rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases affecting young people. One of the hardest parts of living with an RMD is the invisibility of the disease in daily life. We wanted to show that even though you cannot see it, many young people have to deal with the consequences of having an RMD on a daily basis. We also wanted to show other young people who are in a similar situation, that they are not the only one.Methods:To make the invisible side of an RMD visible for others, Youth-R-Well.com created Inside Out, an eight part photo campaign. Eight young people with different types of RMDs, took part in this project. From each individual, two photos were taken: one photo in daylight and one photo in the dark with their rheumatic-spots highlighted by blacklight paint. Next to the photos, the participants introduced themselves in a few sentences and ended with a life quote with a focus on the positive side of life. They were all telling very different and very personal stories. The general quote of the photo campaign was “Although you cannot see it from the outside, it is still there”. The photo campaign was posted on Facebook and Instagram. The photo campaign was released the week before World Arthritis Day, in which the photos of one person were shared on each day. The final photo, a group photo with all the young people and their black light photos, was shared on World Arthritis Day 12 October 2018.Results:It was a successful campaign, in which we reached almost 30.000 people on Facebook and 5.000 people on Instagram. The success of the project and all the shares and great comments it received were overwhelming. The power of two photos next to each other had a large impact on people who were not familiar with the fact that RMDs do exist among young people. As a result of the great comments, this photo campaign is going to be exhibited in Reade, the center for Rehabilitation and Rheumatology in Amsterdam, to reach more people and make them more aware of the invisibility of RMDs.Conclusion:Based on inspiration from a youth organisation in Sweden, Youth-R-Well.com created the successful campaign Inside Out. We managed to create more awareness for young people with RMDs and the invisible side of having an RMD. We will continue to spread this campaign and show that young people with RMDs are not alone.Acknowledgement:First of all,...