We talked with Dr. Marion Sommers-Spijkerman, postdoctoral fellow from the Netherlands, to learn more about her research focused on developing and evaluating a guided web-based self-compassion intervention aimed at reducing self-stigma in people living with ALS and their primary caregivers.
Navigating the world of healthcare and insurance, especially Medicare, can be very complicated and overwhelming. It's important to make the right decisions when it comes to health insurance plans and to understand the available options that could impact the critical care you need.
Thanks to the tireless work of ALS advocates, everybody who is diagnosed with ALS is eligible for Medicare. That makes Medicare open enrollment an important window of time for the ALS community.
Adequate nutrition helps maintain energy stores, supports a strong immune system, and reduces the risk of chronic diseases. But the demands of caregiving can put healthy meals on the backburner. Here are some tactics to simplify mealtimes while still eating healthy.
When my husband Tom was diagnosed with ALS, we were embraced by the ALS community. But as his health declined, I didn’t really feel ALS was what was stealing my husband from me. I felt more connected to people losing loved ones to frontotemporal dementia, also known as FTD. I did lose my husband to ALS… a particularly cruel and nasty form of ALS that includes FTD.
October 1st marks the first day of National Physical Therapy Month, a time to raise awareness of the key role that physical therapists play in helping people improve mobility, find relief from pain, and live healthier, more physically able lives.
Dr. Heidi Tarr Henson, a Massachusetts woman recently diagnosed with ALS, reflects on on in-the-moment advocacy, teachable moments and the power of setting boundaries with ourselves and others.
The National ALS Registry and Biorepository was created back in 2007 to help understand how prevalent ALS is, who is developing ALS, and what the possible causes are. Its mission is also to help support researchers in discovering treatments and cures and in preventing ALS.
We recently spoke with JoCarolyn Chambers, care services manager at The ALS Association, to learn more about her experience in the field of grief counseling, how to handle these difficult and sensitive conversations about loss and the advice she has for people impacted by ALS.
Throughout September we have highlighted some of this year’s scholarship recipients, sharing their personal stories about the impact ALS has had on their lives. We recently talked with Elita Schmidt to learn a little more about her connection to ALS, what receiving the scholarship means to her, and her future plans in healthcare.
Unlike most Medicare recipients who need extensive home care and rehabilitative services, people with ALS do not improve, and the intensity of their service needs increase over time. That means standard Medicare cost control approaches don’t work well. I will discuss two examples.
Telehealth has been an important element in U.S. health care for decades, but the COVID-19 public health emergency has put a spotlight on the need to maintain and expand access to telehealth to ensure everyone can receive appropriate care when and where they need it.
After Amylyx’s announced that it intends to file a new drug application for AMX0035, The ALS Association immediately called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the treatment for all people with ALS as soon as possible. Connecting ALS talked to the team at Amylyx to learn about the path ahead for access to AMX0035.
We recently talked with Kaiden Anderson to learn a little more about his personal connection to ALS, what receiving the scholarship means to him, and his future plans in healthcare.
There is a lot to do, and this grounded focus of making ALS livable helps us hold everyone—ourselves, the FDA, and the research community—accountable to real impacts on real people with ALS and the time it takes to deliver those impacts. This week has been a big step forward for the ALS community, and we will continue urgently working to keep the momentum going.
We recently talked with Emma Thompson, one of this year’s award recipients, to learn a little more about her personal connection to ALS, what receiving the scholarship means to her, and her future plans in nursing.
We recently talked with Dr. Yichen Li, postdoctoral fellow from the Ichida Lab at the University of Southern California to learn about her unique project focused on the efficacy of suppressing a gene called SYF2 as a therapeutic strategy for diverse forms of ALS.
We recently talked with Ally Halverson, one of this year’s award recipients, to learn a little more about her personal connection to ALS, what receiving the scholarship means to her, and what her future plans are in healthcare.
Executive Director John Hedstrom of The ALS Association Massachusetts Chapter pens a letter to the Massachusetts community offering thanks for support throughout the trials of 2020 and urges participation in the Chapter's 2021 event season. His letter also details how folks can attend the Walk to Defeat ALS either in person or virtually.
Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein, professor of neurology and neuroscience and the founding director of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Dr. Alyssa Coyne, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins, discuss their recent publication of research identifying a cellular defect common in ALS and what it means for research into the disease going forward.