Marjo Lehtinen from The Finnish Parkinson Association speaks about the first Essential Tremor Awareness month in Finland.

It was the first time we arranged Essential Tremor Awareness Month in Finland in March 2021. We got this idea and a lot of help from The National Tremor Foundation.

The main event of the month was a webinar hosting lectures of a neurologist, an experience expert with essential tremor, a therapist, Finnish Biopanks and the Essential Tremor Project representative. The webinar was recorded so it can be watched afterwards. There were almost 110 participants on the webinar and people were very pleased to get new information about essential tremor and treatments and support.

We also made history by establishing our own association for people with essential tremor in Finland. The association is a member of The Finnish Parkinson’s Association, which is an umbrella organisation for all the movement disorders.

We raised awareness of ET on social media, television, radio and newspapers. An article featuring a neurologist in one the main newspaper in Finland brought many new members to the Finnish essential tremor facebook group. The number of the members in the facebook group is growing fast: a year ago there were 230 members, before the Awareness month around 500, and now over 600.

The Essential Tremor Project arranged face-to-face peer support meeting with Neurologist and online-meeting with occupational therapist in March. People are so pleased to meet each other and to get information that hasn’t been available before.

Thank you National Tremor Foundation for your inspiration. Let’s continue to raise awareness together. We are not alone, as Maarit Matjussi, the chairman of the new Finnish Essential Tremor Association pronounced to her peers, people with ET at the webinar. That is so true, it is a worldwide issue, and we are so happy to be doing this together. Thank you for all the amazing work you have done!

For more information about essential tremor in Finland, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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(Writer and on photo: Marjo Lehtinen)