Fun in the sun:  Summer camp for JIA kids

"Why can't we do something fun instead of being tortured all the time?"

That question, posed by a child with Juvenile Inflammatory Arthritis (JIA) while in pool therapy at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, haunted the Rheumatology professionals dedicated to the care of kids with JIA. At a team meeting a few days later, while discussing options of "fun" things to do, I suggested that it might be fun to have a summer camp. I continue to cherish childhood memories of many summers at camp. The healthcare team jumped on the idea and soon we were talking excitedly about the possibilities. That summer, 10 children with JA attended the first ever camp for kids with arthritis in Alberta.

There were many issues to consider in undertaking this project; we needed to write a proposal to our employer to justify the time and effort it would take to develop the camp program and what the benefits of the program would be to the children, their families and to the clinic.

The philosophy of the clinic has always been to promote participation in all normal activities to the child’s own tolerance and endurance, and with that in mind, we explored the feasibility of integrating our kids into an existing camp program, rather than creating a camp specifically for children with JIA. We clearly did not want arthritis to be the focus of the camp experience, but rather fun, and an opportunity for the kids to just be kids. We also felt that we could use the camp setting to interact with the children and allow them to see us on a different level, as well as provide rehabilitation and treatment measures if the need arose. In addition, we decided to use the camp setting to include a bit of education about their disease.

Camp was a wonderful experience for both the children and the team from the hospital. The kids fit in well with other campers and both the team and the counselors were impressed by the enthusiasm, tenacity and strength of their JIA patients. (Amazingly enough, many of our kids with JIA chose top bunks and some with stiff, sore hands did beadwork!) They had six days of camp that included swimming, sailing, canoeing, windsurfing, a rope course, and crafts, with the highlight of the experience being a day at the waterslide in the town of Sylvan Lake. Those darling young people even challenged me, their nurse with RA, to try the slide; how could I say "NO"!!

A few of our ideas were less than successful. The education part of the program that we had hoped to provide was quickly shelved; the kids were not happy with being pulled out of mainstream activities to talk about arthritis. However, other ideas were extremely beneficial. At the suggestion of the Rheumatology team, the camp integrated a morning stretching routine for all campers, (lead by the Rehab team) and that activity, along with daily hotpacking as required, reinforced for the kids with JIA, the value of exercise as part of the treatment regime. A portable hot tub, donated by a local company in Red Deer, Alberta, was extremely useful to the children after being chilled and provided therapists with some 1:1 stretching and resistance with the kids. In addition, all sixty "regular" campers as well as the camp staff, learned about the disease Juvenile Arthritis!

The camp program is no longer available in Alberta, but continues to run in British Columbia and Quebec. Wouldn't it be "fun" to get camps up and running across Canada? JIA kids deserve it.