Come to the Meadow Mall on Sunday, Sept. 16 from 2 to 5 p.m. for an interactive discussion and brainstorming about how to provide better local services for patients suffering from, or concerned about, Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.

Many people in the Boothbay region have chronic Lyme disease, and some have also contracted other tick-borne co-infections. The Boothbay Region Health Center wants to become a trusted local resource for anyone who is concerned about preventing, diagnosing, and curing tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Bartonella, Erlichiosis, Powassan, etc. So, we need community members' help, as well as help from Lyme-literate medical providers in other areas of Maine.

In order to improve their Lyme-literacy, the Health Center board and staff are hosting a participatory design workshop on Sunday, Sept. 16, in which patients who have had tick encounters can compare notes, talk about their experiences, and learn about other treatment options from both patients and Lyme-literate medical and holistic providers.

After a patient-led discussion, we'll ask community members and patients to design their ideal journey from initial concern to diagnosis and treatment. What would you like to have happen? How long should it take? What are you willing to do to ensure that you are correctly diagnosed? And, what preventive measures are you willing to take to be sure you don't get exposed to tick-borne illnesses?

As community members describe their ideal journey and successful outcomes, the Boothbay Health Center medical providers and staff will map out the steps the BRHC staff needs to take to be able to provide the needed services and referrals and to become even more Lyme-literate than they already are. We cordially invite other medical providers and holistic practitioners who treat patients with Lyme and other co-infections to participate.

Paula Jackson-Jones, co-founder of Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education and a BRHC Board member, will be one of our subject matter experts, and has invited a number of Lyme-literate providers from other parts of Maine to provide advice and coaching.

The results from the workshop will be a set of patient-led guidelines and metrics that will help the Health Center develop its protocols for diagnosing and treating tick-borne diseases, as well as for helping to prevent them. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of how best to prevent, diagnose and treat tick-borne illnesses.

This patient co-design workshop is being co-sponsored by the Community Center and will be held at the Meadow Mall (in the Community Center, Boothbay Region Health Center, and the corridor outside the Health Center).

If you're interested in participating in this workshop, please let us know by signing up at the Health Center, or at the Community Center, or by calling or emailing the workshop facilitator, Patty Seybold (phone: 633-4368; or email (patricia.seybold@boothbayhealthcare.org). We're looking for a wide range of participants of all ages, from those who have been diagnosed with a tick-borne disease, to those who are concerned about the epidemic, to professionals who see and treat patients on a regular basis. Pre-registration is not required, but would be helpful. We're also looking for volunteers who can produce, videotape the session, and/or edit down the videos into a short documentary, working with the equipment and coaching from our local BRCTV.