The ALS Association is pleased to share results from our recent community survey. We were interested in hearing about programs and services that people reported as being important, reasons why people were not accessing some programs, major challenges, and issues around medications. Information gained from the survey will be incorporated in to care services planning activities and will be used to inform strategic planning, priority setting, program outcomes, and program improvements.
The ALS Association is deeply committed to accelerating the development of novel ALS therapies and ensuring they are accessible to those who need them. The Association is announcing today its latest strategic action with the release of Principles for Urgent, Patient-Centered ALS Clinical Trials: a series of recommendations to clinical trial sponsors and regulatory bodies worldwide.
To help provide more information about our research program, our spending decisions, our approach to certain experimental therapies, and other matters, we have put together the below Frequently Asked Questions.
The impact of an ALS diagnosis is profound – and not just for the person living with the disease. Daily activities, like making meals, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, and walking the dog, take a back seat when providing care for a family member with ALS.
It’s ALS Awareness Month, and The ALS Association remains steadfastly committed to funding the most hopeful research around the world that could lead to effective treatments and a cure for ALS.
Even though ALS is a disease that has its own health implications, people with ALS are not immune from other injuries or medical issues. Individuals with ALS can still get sick or hurt themselves in ways unrelated to the disease. Or, people with ALS might have complications directly related to the disease that warrants a visit to the hospital.
ALS can be confusing, scary, embarrassing, and overwhelming – for people living with the disease as well as for the youth within their families. Young people need age-appropriate details about ALS to help reduce some of the fear and uncertainty surrounding the disease.
This is the fifth in a series of posts from people living with ALS who are featured in our #VoiceYourLove campaign. Lorene composed this message using assistive communication technology with a visual-tracking system. She typed the words, one letter at a time, using her eyes.
Every two years, hundreds of ALS health care professionals come together to discuss new trends, share best practices and guidelines, exchange ideas and successes, and talk about challenges and potential solutions. To capture the collaborative power of the 2018 event in Fort Worth, Texas – our largest-ever Clinical Conference, with more than 500 attendees – we put together a short video highlight reel.
At our most recent clinical conference, we honored Frances (Fran) McClellan with the Lawrence A. Rand Prize. The award recognizes the courage, passion, integrity, and commitment of people serving the ALS community as volunteers, health care professionals, educators, communicators, or in other ways contributing to the quality of life of people living with ALS. It was established by Lawrence Rand, a former chairman of the Association’s Board of Trustees who played a major role in laying the cornerstone of what is now The ALS Association.
We had the pleasure of joining ALS scientists, clinicians, health care professionals, industry and advocacy partners, and, most importantly, people with ALS and their families at the annual events hosted by the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations and the MND Association last month. It’s always a great opportunity to come together and learn from each other.
The ALS Association is proud to be the first investor in antisense technology, dating back to 2004 when antisense was just an idea in Dr. Don Cleveland’s lab at University of California San Diego (UCSD). Fast forward to 2018 and we are seeing promising results in antisense drugs targeting the two most common causes of inherited ALS, mutations in the SOD1 and C9orf72 genes.
I was diagnosed with ALS in January 2014, at the age of 53. I was an oncology nurse for 32 years and had just completed my master’s degree in nursing and passed the boards to become a nurse practitioner when I was diagnosed. Being a nurse practitioner had always been a dream of mine, but I was unable to use my master’s degree at all because of ALS.
People living with ALS come first in everything we do. We’re dedicated to providing people fighting ALS and their families and friends with the critical information, support, and resources they need to live full lives and better meet daily challenges.
Last year, I sat in the Washington, D.C., offices of my four elected Indiana representatives and saw in their eyes how my words, and the words from my wife, pierced their hearts.
There’s no sugarcoating it. ALS is terrible. Unlike many fathers this Halloween, I couldn’t carve a pumpkin with my kids. I also couldn’t help them put on their costumes or take them trick-or-treating.
Our national network of 63 Certified Treatment Centers of Excellence (CTCEs) provides robust, expert multidisciplinary ALS care and services in a supportive atmosphere, emphasizing hope and quality of life. Studies show attending a multidisciplinary clinic can extend survival, increase quality of life, and improve access to potential therapies.
The ALS community recently presented its recommendations to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Developing Drugs for Treatment Guidance for Industry at a day-long event, called ALS Community Workshop: Therapy Development and Regulatory Pathways, which was held in Washington, D.C., on July 12. Over 90 people attended in person, with many more tuning in online.
Under current law, people disabled with ALS who qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) must wait five months before receiving SSDI benefits. Every person must wait, regardless of the level of disability or how fast the Social Security Administration (SSA) approves their claim.
