"The Meningitis Centre is striving to eliminate Meningitis in Australia by lobbying for vaccines and educating the community to be aware of the signs and symptoms. The Centre also provides support for families affected by the disease"
Peer Support
Peer supporters are volunteers who have had a specific experience with meningitis and over time have emerged from their experience with improved insight. These people use their experience to support others who are going thorough a similar stressful situation.
Our program aims to provide a service that offers understanding and encouragement to individuals and their families who have experienced meningitis. We hope the program will provide an opportunity for people to speak to their peers as we attempt to match people, where possible, with someone who have a similar outcome.
If you are interested in speaking with a peer supporter, would like to know more or would like to become a peer supporter please contact the Centre on (08) 9489 7791.
Peer support in action - read how peer support can help
Dedicated Peer support volunteer Shelby, whose son Riley had pneumococcal disease, offered support to Marianne, whose son Josh also experienced pneumococcal meningitis. They have agreed to share their support experience, this is their story.
Marianne’s son Josh had a throat infection a week and a half before he was diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis in late 2004.
“Josh was about 13 months old and was also teething at the time, so it wasn’t until he actually started having seizures that we were aware something was seriously wrong,” said Marianne
Josh was admitted to the children’s hospital and spent 4 days in IC and a further two weeks on a ward
“Josh reverted to being like a newborn baby initially and was not able to support himself or do any of the things he did prior to becoming ill, like walking and talking.”
“Two months after we left hospital Josh seemed to be recovering well, was back on his feet and getting up to the stuff he used to before becoming ill. He was still a bit unbalanced and appeared to stumble more frequently.”
After tests showed no sign of epileptic activity, Josh was gradually weaned off anti convulsants.
Twelve months on Josh is physically fit and well, although he does appear more susceptible to illness. A paediatric assessment has highlighted some development issues with motor skills and speech for which Josh is receiving therapy and is improving all the time. Apart from that he is your usual happy, mischievous but charming toddler.
While Josh suffered from pneumococcal his mum Marianne like most parents had a lot of questions and wanted to know more about the devastating disease that had made her son so sick.
“I feel that being made aware of The Meningitis Centre much earlier would have helped and perhaps being able to talk to someone sooner who had been through the experience would have provided a lot of comfort to myself and our family,” she said
Marianne contacted The Meningitis Centre after Josh was sent home and was able to speak to peer supporter Shelby.
“Shelby contacted me by phone and we had a chat about my experience. I found the peer support contact very helpful because I could talk to someone who had been through the same experience and come out the other side, so to speak. In the days immediately after coming home it is hard to imagine that life will ever be normal again, but talking to Shelby helped to reassure me that this was a possibility. I was also talking to someone in non-technical terms, someone human. I am immensely grateful to Shelby for the support and comfort that she provided.
Shelby said she became a peer supporter because she felt quite isolated in many ways when her baby son Reily was diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis. 
“I would have really loved to have spoken to someone who had been in my position and could shed some light on what types of things I could expect from the illness, hospital stay, after effects, etc. Just someone who had been there and had experienced the fear and anguish of being faced with such a deadly disease,” said Shelby.
“The opportunity to help someone else feel less isolated after being faced with such a life changing issue was something I was very comfortable with and more than happy to undertake. The opportunity to network with others whose lives have been touched by meningitis was a big attraction as well. I just wish I could get to more of the fundraising, social and training activities and be more involved than I can be at present.”
Marianne also received an information kit from The Meningitis Centre. “I found the information was also useful because it was specific enough without being too clinical, and provided us with the information we required to better understand Josh’s illness,” she said.
The overwhelming positive feedback received by the Centre of the peer support program is fantastic. The program continues to expand with a further eleven people attending the 2005 training day in Perth. The meningitis experiences of people attending are all different, allowing the Centre to provide more people access to peer support.
