How to Increase Scoliosis Awareness in Your Community
IT’S JUNE!
(At least, it is June at the time of writing this post…)
June is Scoliosis Awareness Month. But Scoliosis Awareness can happen year-round!
In fact, given that scoliosis awareness has historically be so critically low (*sob*) perhaps scoliosis should have an entire dedicated year of awareness to give it a chance to catch up!
Awareness - for anything - doesn’t just happen. It takes time, effort, and oftentimes money. Critically, it takes devotion and a chorus of voices to push it forward.
This author sees awareness for scoliosis as having three branches:
Social Awareness
Research Efforts
Emotional Supports
Social Awareness
Let’s be honest: scoliosis has not had a fun time in media and society over the last few centuries. It has gotten a bad rap. Been used as a short-hand to belittle or indicate weakness. The ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame” hid in a tower because his society was so cruel. Are you kidding me?! How on earth can we expect that tide to change without a concerted effort to change that narrative.
Now is the time.
Scoliosis is not a weakness or something to be shamed for. It is not a comedic tool to be tossed around in tv and movies to snip at somebody’s posture or form. No, no, no.
How do we change this?
We re-route the narrative when we see/hear such things.
We educate anybody and everybody who will listen as to what scoliosis truly is, and not what media/society has planted in minds for generations.
We speak at health and wellness events, libraries, schools, book clubs, wine clubs, business clubs… any platform within the community is an opportunity for scoliosis awareness!
BONUS: When you do speak about scoliosis in your community, I promise you will be shocked at the number of people who come up afterwards to tell you “My [insert friend/family/coworker here] has scoliosis and I never knew any of that!” or my personal fave “I have scoliosis too and I have never known anybody else who has it!”
**Cue warm and fuzzy feeling of making a positive difference in your community and for the next generation of Scoli’s. Great job!
Research Efforts
Modern day medical marvels astound me constantly. While I do not work in a lab, I have had the privilege of meeting many researchers toiling away ‘behind the scenes’ to understand the source of scoliosis. (Yes, that works is happening, even if it’s not constantly in the headlines!) I have also had opportunities to meet with varying clinicians, therapists, and surgeons from around the world working on new techniques to expedite scoliosis correction and healing (both physical and mental). There is so so so much on the go that it warrants its own rant, so I’ll stop myself here (for now).
Scoliosis Awareness ties so closely to the research world. Research takes time and effort from brilliant scientists. Scientists need to eat too and lab equipment isn’t cheap. Therefore, fundraising for scoliosis is a direct line to building that insight and information for our beloved collection of Scoliosis Warriors around the world - past & present & future!
Research institutions vary by region/country. Find one in your corner of the world and consider fundraising for them! June is a great month to do so - Scoliosis Awareness month gives you a great platform to launch a fundraiser, accompanied by all of the other Scoliosis Warriors posting awareness online daily!
Emotional Supports
This branch of scoliosis awareness ties the first two together: changing the social narrative of scoliosis makes it easier on the Scoli + increased research efforts into every field provides hope and new solutions for scoliosis woes. While those two branches are gaining momentum, we can simultaneously boost scoliosis awareness with emotional support in our day-to-day interactions.
For anybody impacted by scoliosis - whether yourself or a loved one - we all have a fantastic ability to learn. We don’t necessarily have to be hanging out with the petri dishes in labs every day to contribute to improving the care of our loved ones with scoliosis (yourself included). Learning about scoliosis -its physical impacts, emotional ups and downs, the nature of a dynamic condition, the loss experienced at the time of diagnosis, the concern for the future - can inform so much of the saga. Having an inkling of an understanding into those realms impacted by a curvy spine will provide the foundation for improved emotional support. For yourself: acknowledging what scoliosis means to you. For a Scoli Supporter: seeing through the lens of life with a curvy spine.
Take a look around your community - within your home, parish, county, State/Province, Country. What impact has scoliosis had on your life? What is your level of comfort with stating the stats and strengths of people with scoliosis? Do you have a particular interest in a specific aspect of the scoliosis saga? What is the realistic amount of time you have to lend to Scoliosis Awareness? Do you want to be in the spotlight, or contributing behind-the-scenes in coordinating scoliosis awareness?
While some of us want to shout Scoli Awareness from the rooftops, that’s not necessary for everybody! Scoliosis Awareness can be as little as dropping it into conversation here and there, when it makes sense - all small ripples add up!!
I’ll leave you with this tiniest opportunity to kickstart Scoli Awareness: June is Scoliosis Awareness Month. For reasons that continue to elude me (AKA: there’s no logic to it and we can so fix this!!) Scoliosis Awareness Month if left off of ALL of the “awareness month” calendars! Mental Health Awareness Month, MS Month, thisthatanother Month… but never Scoliosis Awareness Month! This makes me (and many others) very very sad, as it is established and recognized globally - yet it is never put “on the books”.
Let’s put Scoliosis Awareness Month on the books for June. Reach out to your workplace, parish, community calendar - literally anybody that tracks special “Months”, let them know about Scoliosis for June, and request that they include it on the newsletter/calendar. Simply having it written there will pop it in front of so many people and plant the seed for Scoliosis Awareness in their minds. I don’t recommend things I haven’t tried - so I did this at my workplace last week when I say an internal comms email come through listing all thisthatanother month celebrations for the quarter without Scoliosis Awareness Month! How dare. One quick email to that department containing two sentences and BOOM the next internal comms email showed a shiny new line item under June: Scoliosis Awareness Month. I am very proud of this tiny mighty win - and you can be too!
Thank you for joining us all in pushing Scoliosis Awareness. All of our curves thank you.
BONUS: Send a copy of Tangled in the Curves: Real Life with Idiopathic Scoliosis to your local hospital to provide Scoliosis Awareness year-round right in their pediatric waiting room!
Note: This blog is based on the author’s experience and opinion only, without any formal medical training. In no way should this blog replace professional medical advice.