Member-built.  Member-driven.  New CAPA website works for you!

The Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance is delighted to announce its brand new, independent website at www.arthritispatient.ca. Naturally, we think it's the best looking, most informative and easiest to use web site anywhere around!

We've made it easy to access information about CAPA activities both past and present, find advocacy tools to assist in voicing your concerns, see arthritis news, and use features that allow you to talk to us and share information with your friends. One design aspect that we are particularly excited about is our poll feature. It permits us to quickly determine your perspective on current health issues, you learn the results immediately, and the information helps CAPA represent Canadians with arthritis. We've worked hard to design a top notch, easy to navigate website and have included design features we've been asked for. This is what we've included:

Starting with the Home Page

The Home page presents a brief overview of CAPA and our strategic objectives. It also provides links to selected news items, articles to assist you with your advocacy efforts, upcoming events and a new feature, latest poll. The poll collects opinions on issues related to health and arthritis and provides instant feedback. What you may not notice right away is that the photo gracing the Home Page changes every time you click Home. There are 10 photos in this collection – seven are of people we know.

About

This section is explicit. It tells what we do, and why, where and how we do it. It contains the documents that outline the principles by which CAPA operates and our Annual Reports. It also lists the current and former members of the CAPA Steering Committee. Of course the web page photo is fabulous.

Get Involved

This page was developed with you in mind. We wanted it to be straightforward, easy to edit your personal information, and free of looping mechanisms that create frustration.

Events

CAPA receives many requests from our partner organizations to advise our membership of upcoming conferences and events – far too many for us to have previously accommodated. The new Events page was included on the website to manage these requests, raise awareness, keep you apprised of meetings in your province and throughout the country, and encourage participation. It also provides a snapshot of the extent of CAPA involvement. The Send to a friend feature enables conference information to be shared with friends and colleagues across the country.

Resources

The Resources page provides most of the background information you will need to construct your individual advocacy campaigns and includes the personal experiences of CAPA members. Some of their initiatives led to success; others did not; but all provided valuable building bricks for future projects. Find your federal and/or provincial government representative is an included feature to assist you in directing correspondence to respective Ministers of Health, MPs and MLAs. Tell them what you need and what you think.

You will notice that the latest poll is repeated on this page. This is to capture the input of members who skip the Home page and go directly to Resources. In addition to the current features on this page, in the near future it will host the new research information portal described in the President’s Message.

News

This is where our News Alerts and News Updates will be stored. We had no place for these items on the old site.

CAPA Voices

You'll find that the face of our newsletter, CAPA Voices, has changed but the content and substance of the articles will remain loyal to past practice. We like the new look. We particularly like the comments option that follows each article and trust that you will use it to communicate with us. CAPA will be notified electronically each time a comment is registered. We really want to hear from you.

Let’s Talk

This is your new discussion board. Talk to us and talk to each other. Contribute a comment about a news item we've posted – maybe on a new treatment, perhaps on a government policy, possibly on what you need and cannot obtain in the way of arthritis care. Ask your questions and make suggestions. This is your page.

We hope you'll visit arthritispatient.ca right away, and tell your friends, family and perfect strangers about it. Please let us know what you think of it, and tell us the questions you'd like us to run for the poll, too. We're proud of our new website and hope you'll enjoy using it. And, we really do want to know what you think!