“There’s nothing like having someone that you can talk to and get to know, that is there just for you,” says Tami Seretti. That is the whole idea behind the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) One to One program. People need to connect. The pandemic has gone a long way in proving that.
The One to One mentor-mentee program, which launched in 2016, is designed to bring together people with questions and concerns about their psoriatic disease with someone who has been through it all before. Some mentees sign up after they’re newly diagnosed with psoriasis. Some seek a mentor when they develop psoriatic arthritis or other comorbidities of psoriasis. Still others might become a One to One mentee when a treatment stops working.
Since the program’s inception, over 600 pairings have taken place between people with psoriatic disease. Those 1200 people comprise a worldwide population. One to One currently reaches 19 countries, and the program is still ready to grow, at only about 72 percent capacity.
So what do a mentor and mentee talk about? And might this program be a good fit for you or someone you know? To find out more, we turn back to Seretti, who has mentored a wide range of people through One to One, and one of her mentees, Tamla Dorsey, to talk with us about the connection they made.
Getting to Know Each Other
At first, the focus is on learning about each other and the ways psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are impacting their lives. “Our conversations, in the beginning, were really focused on how my body is reacting and ‘Is this normal for psoriatic arthritis? Should I address it?’” says Dorsey, who has Sjogren’s syndrome and turned to One to One when she received a PsA diagnosis.
“The support that Tami has provided me has been so helpful,” Dorsey says. “She has helped me to know what questions to ask my doctor, to highlight specific symptoms that I’ve been feeling, and just an overall reassurance that what I’m going through, she and millions of other people have been through it, and there is the other side that I will get to eventually.”