Telling My Friends: Crohn’s or Colitis

Telling My Friends: talking about having Crohn’s or Colitis was developed with young people and it is based on research with young people and young adults who have Crohn’s and Colitis. This resource has been endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing.

Our resource is free to download and use. It is made up of:

• an Information sheet about how to tell your friends you have Crohn’s or Colitis
• an information sheet about how to support a friend with Crohn’s or Colitis
• an information sheet for people who work in schools, colleges and universities about how to give the right support to those who have Crohn’s or Colitis
• a short animation for young people, young adults, professionals and other people interested in understanding more about telling friends about living with Crohn’s or Colitis. It highlights some of the challenges young people may face in telling and provides useful ideas for telling friends.
• an information sheet for parents of young people with Crohn’s or Colitis to help them support their child’s friendships.

Our study explored how Crohn’s and Colitis impacts on young people’s and young adult’s friendships and their mental health. A key finding was that many young people find it difficult to tell their friends about their condition because they find it embarrassing to talk about and worry about how their friends might react. We are working closely with Crohn’s and Colitis UK who funded our study and linking to their #ItTakesGuts campaign to help breakdown the ongoing stigma and taboo about bowel conditions.

Our e-advisory group of ten young people with Crohn’s or Colitis were essential in helping create the animation and resources, and some of them are the voices of the characters in the animation.

For more information, please contact Professor Bernie Carter on [email protected]

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This resource will be reviewed in 2023.