Paper short abstract:

Women with autoimmune diseases often must negotiate challenges posed by the moralisation of health and illness, gender expectations, and disruptions to identities. This paper provides an overview of my PhD project which explores the implications of these issues for regional support worlds.

Paper long abstract:

Chronic autoimmune diseases (ADs) affect an estimated 324,694 people in regional Australia, with women 2.7 times more likely to contract an AD than men. Little is known about the support needs of women with ADs in regional Australia, however having effective and appropriate support systems in place is important given that support services tend to be limited in regional areas, relative to their metropolitan counterparts. It is well known that chronic illnesses can pose challenges to people's identities, and ADs are no exception. In fact, for many people an AD diagnosis is strongly linked to their identity and sense of self. These experiences are further influenced in particular ways by social expectations surrounding gender, and the way that neoliberal societies moralise health and illness. Consequently, it is important that support systems can address the broader support needs of women with ADs, as well as the specific challenges posed by disruptions to identities, gender expectations, and moralisation. This paper provides an overview of my current PhD project that investigates the support worlds of women with ADs in regional Queensland through a life story approach to ethnography. In addition to providing an overview of my project, I will present some preliminary findings from fieldwork that began in mid-2017, and consider some of the implications of these findings for the provision of support for women with ADs in regional Australia.