Practicing wellness and self-care is key to improving your ability to live a longer, healthier life. Making a concerted effort to keep your mind healthy is just as important as keeping your body healthy, particularly for people living with ALS and their caregivers.

Focusing on caring for a person’s overall wellness is an important part of ALS multidisciplinary care. For people living with ALS and their families, the disease impacts every aspect of life, not just physical wellness, but also emotional, spiritual, social and financial wellness too.

Making a concerted effort to keep your mind healthy is just as important as keeping your body healthy, particularly for people living with ALS and their caregivers.

Research has shown that participating in creative outlets helps create stronger social relationships, reduces stress, and allows us to develop a deeper appreciation for the world around us while helping to improve mental health.

For people living with ALS, both listening to and playing music can be beneficial to mental health and wellness and can provide an important connection to family, friends and community. 

ALS follows no predictable path and adheres to no set timeline. Planning ahead helps to alleviate some of the chaos of change, but how do you know what to plan for or what questions to ask? My ALS Journey™ is an interactive, web-based tool that allows people living with ALS to take control of their journey with the disease.

Monday, September 18, 2023, 2:00 p.m. ET

Learn how to decrease your work of breathing in September's Living with ALS webinar with Kristen McHenry, Ed.D., RRT-ACCS.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

To view past webinars available in our archive, visit our website HERE.

It is with heavy hearts we share the news of the recent sudden passing of our colleague and Connecting ALS podcast host, Jeremy Holden. Jeremy was an amazing friend and coworker to so many and will be deeply missed by all who knew him. He was passionate about our mission, and made it a priority to help make a difference for the community we serve. His contributions to the Association and the families he touched will never be forgotten.

For this reason, Connecting ALS will be taking a pause while we mourn Jeremy’s loss. In the meantime, here are a few of his recent podcast episodes that may be of interest to you.

Thank you for your patience during this difficult time.

Making Insurance Accessible for People Living with ALS

Navigating Barriers Used by Insurers to Restrict Access to Health Care

Prioritizing Wellness While Living With ALS

Racial Disparities in Time to Diagnosis

Action Plan Being Developed to Make ALS Livable

To subscribe to listen to more weekly podcast episodes on Connecting ALS, visit our website HERE.

Meet Some of the 2023 Jane Calmes ALS Scholarship Fund Recipients

ALS Association Comments on Draft Payer Policies that Refuse to Cover Qalsody

Advocating to Break Down Health Insurance Barriers

Noninvasive Ventilators are not a Luxury, but a Lifeline for People Living with ALS

Making the Challenging a Little Less So—Your ALS Care Team and Health Insurance

Breaking Barriers: The Fight to Make Health Care Affordable and Accessible

Expanding Diversity in Clinical Trials

To learn more about the disease and follow stories about people living with ALS in the community, subscribe to receive our weekly blogs in your inbox HERE or follow us at als.org/blog. 

The ALS Association collaborates with some of the best ALS physicians and clinics across the United States to help ensure that people living with ALS have access to specialized care.

Our nationwide network of chapters and partners deliver a robust portfolio of care and support programs designed to enhance quality of life and support families impacted by ALS. 

Support groups are a great resource for people to maintain control over their lives, to give and take the wisdom and experience that comes from living with a devastating illness. 

We have assembled multiple resources, including publications and videos produced by The Association, other related books, fact sheets and resource guides pertaining to ALS and ALS care. 

For more information, visit our website at als.org.

Stay up to date with the latest news in ALS advocacy and research by signing up for our monthly e-newsletters, Advocacy Matters and Research Matters.

We welcome all feedback, comments and questions you may have on anything about the information provided, suggestions of topics you would like to see in future newsletters or thoughts to help us improve. Please email us at communication@alsa-national.org.