Marijke: Nurse Turned Writer: June is ...... Awareness Month

It's become very common to log on to Facebook or check Twitter and discover, on any given day, that it's XX awareness month/week/day. There are so many that some people may wonder if these awareness times have any impact. I think they do.

Special times set aside for disease or condition awareness allow people and organizations to have a common goal or theme. By having a month dedicated to heart health (February), sepsis (September), or breast cancer (October), plans can be made for events that can have the maximum impact.

Having these awareness times also helps journalists and editors plan stories. It's a good way to bring lesser known illnesses to the pubic eye. For example, May was Huntington's Disease Awareness Month and May 12 was Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. Journalists wrote some stories about these illnesses, which in turn, helps raise awareness.

Some of these observances are world-wide, such as World AIDS Day, which is December 1, while others are specific to certain countries. The United States has a list of National Health Observances, as does Canada, for example. Many of these overlap.

So, what is coming for June? According to the NHO, in the U.S., we have: