EUROPSO General Assembly and Members Meeting

/in

This year’s EUROPSO General Assembly and Members Meeting was special, being the first face-to-face event after a two-year pause, due to Covid-19 pandemic. The event took place on Saturday, November 12, when EUROPSO welcomed to Madrid delegates from Greece, France, Slovenia, The Netherlands, Serbia, Czech Republic and Slovakia, and providing a video link for others who could not join in person.

The General Assembly held Board elections. After the election process was completed, Jan Koren, EUROPSO President announced the new Board, consisting of the following members:

  • Jan Koren – President
  • David Trigos Herraez – Vice president
  • Henk Hulshuizen – Secretary
  • Jaime Melancia – Member
  • Tina Koukopoulou – Member
  • Vanda Marjanović – Substitute member
  • Gabriela Doleželová – Substitute member
EUROPSO Board members present at the Madrid meeting, from left to right: David Trigos, Jan Koren, Tina Koukopoulou, Gabriela Doleželová and Henk Hulshuizen

The main topic of the day was the upcoming launch of the EUROPSERVATORY Project’s first phase in May 2023. Explaining all three project phases, David Trigos, EUROPSO Vice President said the overall goal from the project was having „More clinical research, better access to treatment and raised awareness of the psoriatic patients’ needs, until every approved drug finds its way to the patient in need and stigma around this disease ceases to exist. “

Speaking about this overarching goal, Trigos emphasized that it could not be achieved without inviting other interested organisations for an alignment of activities and achieving better impact on the EU policy makers. The members discussed in details about the idea of having a joint initiative for tackling psoriatic disease, which was later on accepted after a short discussion.

The afternoon sessions were dedicated to three workshops:

  1. Fundraising by using the EUROPSERVATORY project
  2. Awareness & Advocacy
  3. How to get younger people more involved in your organisation
Fundraising workshop

After the meeting ended in late afternoon, the members brought a piece of positive atmosphere back to their national organisations, along with valuable new insights and a plan for EUROPSO 2023 activities.

Polka Dot Day celebrated on October 29th 2022

/in

No person suffering from psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis should be left alone with their worries.

This was the reason for the registered association Revenium to organise a Polka Dot Day on the occasion of World Psoriasis Day, October 29, 2022.

„We were delighted that so many people joined us in support of psoriasis patients by wearing polka dot clothes or accessories on this day. By taking action, we are letting our surroundings know that we are familiar with the facts about the disease and that we care about these people“, said the organiser of the event, a nurse and a member of the SPAE patient organization committee, Gabriela Doleželová.

The purpose of this event was to inform the public on the nature of this chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease, which affects the whole organism. It aimed to spread awareness about the disease which shows symptoms on the skin, but also affects nails and joints (psoriatic disease).

It is very important that the public knows that psoriasis is NOT CONTAGIOUS, and that it can be treated, even though it cannot be fully cured at this time.

A special family of polka-dotted toy figures were invented and produced for this day, with purpose of educating children on the subject of psoriasis. These figures are conveying message that psoriatic disease is not contageous and that those who suffer from psoriasis still belong in their group of friends, just like anyone else.

29 October was the day to celebrate Polka Dot Day. On city and village squares, playgrounds and schoolyards, people joined hands and created one BIG HUMAN POLKA DOT – a circle of us, people with polka dots.

„Basically, it´s just about putting on any polka dot clothes on the given day and by doing that, showing that we´re familiar with basic facts about psoriasis,“ said Hana Potměšilová, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the non-profit organisation Revenium, Polish member of EUROPSO.

For more information, please visit: