How Sciensus lets James organise treatment around travel plans

James, from Stirlingshire, has lived with psoriatic arthritis for 17 years and has been on service with Sciensus since December 2016. He explains how home deliveries fit in with his life.

A change in medication in late 2016 began James’ journey with Sciensus, which now sees him taking a self-administered injection once a week.

‘I got a phone call from Sciensus that December,’ he says, ‘arranging for a nurse to come. That was the first interaction I had with them.’

When the nurse came, James says, ‘he demonstrated what I should do to inject, and then watched me do the first injection. It was helpful, going through it the first time because you don’t quite know what to expect. It was good that it was explained and that the support was there.’

The planning of deliveries in advance, James says, has been a feature of the service that he has found incredibly helpful: ‘I get eight weeks’ medication, and after about six weeks I get a phone call from Sciensus booking in the next delivery,’ he says. ‘Basically, I can be anywhere when I organise the delivery date. We travel quite a lot and the service allows me to get on with the things I want to do, knowing I’ve got a predetermined delivery date. As long as I’m at home for that delivery date, I can get on with my life the rest of the time.’

James has been on the Sciensus Readers’ Panel, which advises the organisation on the best way to communicate with patients through its marketing materials, since summer 2020. He was initially interested in getting involved due to the insight he could provide as a former charity chief executive.

‘When I heard Sciensus had a Readers’ Panel to give customer feedback, it was just natural for me to want to take part. I recognise the benefit of getting service user engagement.’

He adds: ‘I think Sciensus are wise to have a Readers’ Panel, to ensure the materials they send out to people do actually meet their objectives.’