IDF Europe Young Advocate representative, Louise Piersman, joined the EPF Youth Group and participated for the first time in EPF’s Spring meeting on April 10-12 in Antwerp, Belgium. The members of the Youth Group welcomed Louise, who presented and shared her perspectives on diabetes with the group.
The European Patients’ Forum’s (EPF) Youth Group is made up of young patient representatives between 15-29 years’ old. They all have different chronic conditions and come from all over the EU.
During this three-day meeting, the members of the group followed up on ongoing projects such as the Work and Youth Suvey (WAYS). The project had a response rate of 75% from 23 countries. The next steps in this project will include creating the WAYS logo, drafting the conclusions of the survey and establishing the next steps that the youth group should follow.
The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss topics affecting young people with chronic diseases, such as challenges faced in the work environment and sexual stigma. The latter will be EPF’s youth group theme in 2020.
“We believe that no one should be ashamed of their sex life. Nobody talks about it or brings it to the scene, but we think that if we start to talk about it, it would be easier for others to join the conversation.”
