Tourette's Awareness Month 15 May - 15 June 2024

For this years campaign, #TourettesHurts, we will highlight the impact Tourette’s can have on those with the condition and those around them. As far as medical conditions go, people often perceive it to be fairly mild, mostly because they don’t understand the symptoms – or the often devastating daily impact. Our campaign hopes to bring this to life.

It's not about raising awareness of Tourette’s

It's about challenging misconceptions

 

The stereotypes of Tourette’s have led to prejudice, social taboo and underfunding. A falsehood with very real consequences.

We hope the campaign will encourage the general public to read and learn more about Tourette’s, enabling us to squash these misconceptions and bring understanding to those with the condition.

 

Why do we need a campaign?

Whilst the majority of people have heard of Tourette Syndrome, many do not really understand what it entails, most thinking that it is comedic and rare and that shouting out obscenities is a criteria for diagnosis – all of which are untrue.  

We believe this is due to the lack of understanding. It is still one of the least known neurodiverse conditions. The media often portrays TS as the swearing condition and the true realities of what it's like to live with TS are rarely shown. With more education in schools, workplaces and general advertising, we hope to eradicate many of the misconceptions around TS.

 

We want to educate, empower, eradicate stigma and foster empathy

 

How do we aim to help?

During Tourette's Awareness Month we will be running a campaign called #TourettesHurts which aims to destigmatise Tourette's by educating and advertising. The campaign will show the general public what the reality of Tourette's looks like, dispelling some of the myths that surround it and we need the support of the TS community to really get the message out there.

Last year, as part of Tourette's Awareness Month, we called on you to be a Tourette's Awareness Partner, and asked you to reach out to your contacts, be that in education, health, media or the corporate world, to ask for their support, and we were blown away by your efforts. This year, we want to grow our list of TA Tourette's Awareness Month Partners.

 

How can you become a TA Tourette's Awareness Month Partner?

A TA Tourette's Awareness Month Partner is anyone who agrees to support Tourette's Awareness month, being involved as much or as little as they like. During Tourette's Awareness month, we want people to: 

 

• Share our #TourettesHurts Content

During awareness month we will have lots of content on our social media, which we ask you to share across all platforms to help us reach as many people as possible.

 

• Create your own #TourettesHurts Content

We would like you to create your own content on socials during the month, using the hashtag #TourettesHurts explaining the physical, emotional or psychological impact that Tourette’s has on you and how things could be easier with more understanding from the general public and more health care services in place.

 

• Display our #TourettesHurts posters in your local community

We are asking people to put a poster up in their workplace, place of leisure or school. Please fill out this form, stating how many posters you would like and your delivery address and we will send them out to you.

 

• Share our #TourettesHurts posters digitally

We would like our poster displayed on digital billboards, TV screens in restaurants and places of leisure and on everyones social media. Click here to download posters.

 

• Use our #TourettesHurts social media pack

We are asking people to use our email footer banner on their personal and work emails, add our social media cover photos to their social accounts and use our virtual backgrounds when on zoom and teams calls. Download here.

 

• Share our Awareness Video

Our amazing TS community collaborated on our 2024 awareness video, sharing their personal experiences of living with TS. Watch and download here.

 

• Take part in #MoveForTourettes

Join our annual fundraising campaign to support TS Awareness Month. You decide your own challenge, to be completed any time between 15 May - 15 June, and earn yourself a bespoke medal, wristband and certificate.

 

• Hold an awareness lesson in school

We have ready made lesson plans to make the teachers' job that little bit easier. The lesson plans contain presentations, videos and worksheets, relevant to all ages. You can download the KS1 lesson plan here, the KS2 lesson plan here and the KS3 / 4 lesson plan here.

 

• Hold a Green day

We want as many schools and businesses as possible to hold an awareness day. Wear it Green Day are all about educating the audience on TS. Schools will be sent an educational pack containing leaflets, balloons, posters in paper and digital format and our social media pack.

Please fill out the following form if you want to hold an awareness day, stating if you are a school or business, giving your postal address and we will send your pack. You could also ask everyone to wear something green to mark the occasion, asking for a £1 donation. If you could hold a collection on your awareness day, we would be extremely grateful. 

We encourage everyone taking part in an awareness day to take photographs and share them with us, so we can celebrate everyone coming together to support TS.

 

• Turn it Green

We want the UK to turn Green on the 7th June to mark Tourette's Awareness Day and would encourage you to reach out to your local buildings and bridges to get them involved. Please take a look at our Flickr album to see some buildings that took part last year Awareness Month 2023 | Flickr