It is often emphasized that the Corona crisis also has positive effects – on nature, the climate, the traffic situation. That is certainly true – since we have lived beyond our means at the expense of nature in recent decades, I am of course happy when nature and the city centers benefit from the current situation.
Nevertheless, I find it hard to really derive something positive from this pandemic. After all, we have to cope with many changes, and above all the shortage of social contacts (if one takes the rules of conduct seriously) is a great burden. I think you can now clearly see that contact with friends, acquaintances, but also all other people is a very important component of our lives, much more important than anything else.
And I believe that with a chronic illness, this weighs even heavier. The limitation of personal contacts here also includes restrictions on access to therapies such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy or all other types of medical training therapy, to medical care – even if, thank God, everything is getting a little better now.
Self-help, in particular, suffers from the current situation and many contact group leaders are likely to be unsure about how they should behave at the moment. AMSEL managed to put together a really fantastic virtual World MS Day at the end of May, but in my opinion, such formats cannot replace personal contact. I had the pleasure of being at the first virtual World MS Day and I think such a format has potential for the future, especially when it comes to further education. Many participants also appreciated the non-binding nature of the format and the absence of travel. In addition, the opportunity to select specific topics was highly valued. However, in my view, the charm of a real event is missing, which is mainly based on personal encounters between the participants themselves, but also between participants and speakers.
For this reason, the current easing of contact restrictions should be used, if possible, to get self-help up and running again locally – even though concerns about the health of the participants in this context are justified. After all, patient groups often meet who are already older, therefore also suffer from cardiovascular diseases and are significantly impaired motorically from the side of MS. This is therefore a patient group that can be considered a risk group according to our current knowledge.
Nevertheless, I think that from a medical point of view it is justifiable to carry out the classic formats of self-help again. The infection numbers are currently low and the summer allows activities to be moved outside or at least to meet in well-ventilated rooms. Of course, it goes without saying that the general rules must be observed – first and foremost the distance rule and appropriate hand hygiene. Wearing a mouth-nose protection during the meetings is also useful, but admittedly it does impair the communal experience and is very uncomfortable for older people, especially over longer periods. By limiting the number of people (to ensure the 2m distance) and/or moving outside, these inconveniences could be conceptually circumvented.
Overall, I believe that the benefit of personal contact, also with regard to the mental health of MS patients, is currently significantly greater than the risk of contact group meetings. Additionally, it is good that the potential of virtual formats is currently being exhausted, because I am convinced that “virtual self-help” will make an important contribution to gaining information in the future and that information gathering through these formats will also become easier. So, a small positive aspect of the pandemic after all…
