Working on the Helpline

Hi All

My name is Vicky and I am the ‘Information and Helpline Coordinator' here at NRAS. I joined the organisation in October 2008 and I can’t believe how much I’ve learnt in a relatively short space of time.

Working on the helpline is a very rewarding job and we love speaking to you, so if you want to speak to a friendly voice on the end of the phone about any matters related to RA please give us a call.

If you have never called the helpline before, here is an idea of how we might be able to help you. On the helpline we offer information and support. We are not medically trained, but we have a wealth of information and resources that can help us to deal with a variety of questions, and sometimes people just call because they need to talk to someone who understands a bit about their condition.

Our helpline runs Monday to Friday from 9.30 to 4.30 and there is an answerphone in place outside of these hours. If you prefer to ask questions or request information through email, you can also contact the helpline at: enquiries@nras.org.uk.

There’s a lot going on in the world of rheumatology at the moment, including the approval this year of the drug ‘Cimzia’ which is the first RA treatment to be approved by NICE in more than 2 years! This has been made possible partly by a new scheme whereby the drug company will fund the first 12 weeks of treatment to eligible patients, by which stage it should be clear whether the patient is responding well. If they have not responded to the drug, this way it hasn’t cost the NHS any money. We hope that there will be other schemes like this, to continue to advance the number of treatments available to treat RA. Please click here to read more about Cimzia on our website.

In addition to my work on the helpline I am also currently working on preparing NRAS for application to a scheme called the ‘Information Standard’ which is a certification scheme for health and social care information. We hope that by successful application to the scheme we will be able to offer further assurance to those reading that our information is a reliable and useful source. More and more people are now doing their own research to inform themselves about their health, so this scheme should be a really useful way of helping people to find the best sources of information. You will no doubt hear more about this scheme in the coming weeks and months!

I hope you are enjoying our blogs and look forward to speaking to many of you in the future.

Best wishes

Vicky
Information and Helpline Coordinator