Summer Wrap-Up: Generation Patient Peer Support Services
This summer was a full one at Generation Patient. From June through August, we hosted 17 peer support groups, including a special LGBTQIA+ Pride Event, bringing young adults with chronic illness together to talk honestly about joy, uncertainty, FOMO, relationships, and community.
Here are a few of the themes we kept coming back to this summer.
Life Is Not a Highlight Reel
“Fear of Missing Out,” or FOMO, came up again and again throughout this summer’s peer support groups. Participants talked about the difficulty of comparing their lived realities with those of their friends, especially when watching others travel, make spontaneous plans, and socialize freely while they manage symptoms, limited energy, and access needs.
Together, we explored what it means to define a good summer on your own terms: modifying plans instead of abandoning them, finding connections in accessible ways, and remembering that what we see online rarely tells the whole story.
Making Room for Joy
Summer can also be an opportunity to notice what brings us joy, especially when we give ourselves permission to be present in the moments we do have.
Across our groups, peers shared the things that made them feel most like themselves: creative projects, time in nature, music, humor, audiobooks, moments of awe, and time with people who made them feel understood. Rather than measuring summer by how much we could do, we talked about how we could show up more fully for the experiences, people, and parts of ourselves that matter to us.
We also talked about the ways accessibility tools and accommodations can help make that possible. A mobility aid, a place to sit, a flexible schedule, or extra recovery time can help us conserve energy for the things we want to be present for.
Joy doesn't have to be bigger, busier, or flashier to be meaningful. Sometimes, it's about having the space to notice what feels good and letting that be enough.
Living With Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a constant part of living with chronic illness. Symptoms can change, plans can shift, and it can be difficult to know what our bodies or lives will ask of us next.
Our groups made space for the frustration and grief that can come with that lack of predictability. Members talked about the challenge of making decisions without having all the information, as well as the bigger questions that can come with an unpredictable health journey: What will my life look like? What can I count on? How do I make plans when I don't know what is ahead?
We also explored the difference between trying to control uncertainty and learning how to move through it. That can mean preparing for harder days, communicating our needs, leaning on people we trust, and finding strategies that help us feel grounded when things are unclear.
We may not be able to know what comes next, but we can build the support, flexibility, and self-trust to meet it when it arrives.
Looking Back With Pride
In June, we hosted a special LGBTQIA+ Pride session co-facilitated by Hannah Yore and Andre Green, exploring the intersections of queer identity and chronic illness.
Participants reflected on the ongoing decisions around disclosure, safety, and visibility, including the emotional work of deciding when and how much of themselves to share. In medical settings especially, fear of misunderstanding or discrimination can make these decisions even more complicated.
The group also celebrated the shared histories of queer and disabled communities in building care, solidarity, and belonging outside systems that have not always made room for them. Drawing on the legacies of Frida Kahlo, Audre Lorde, and Leslie Feinberg, the conversation highlighted how these intersections are not new, and neither is the resilience and community that come from them.
As Andre Green shared:
“To exist as a queer person is to exist in all of your multitudes and identities. Pride is a conscious acknowledgment and celebration of this intersection.”
Looking Ahead to Fall
As summer wraps up, many members are heading into a new school year, starting college or graduate school, or returning after time away.
Whatever this next season brings, we’re carrying forward what we practiced together this summer: knowing our pace, asking for support early, adapting when we need to, and making space for both the hard days and the good ones.
Thank you to everyone who showed up this summer, in our groups, in community, and for yourselves. We’re excited to carry this sense of connection into the fall and keep building a community where young adults with chronic illness can show up as they are, support one another, and feel a little less alone.