MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY ASSOCIATION TO HOST ALS CAREGIVERS SEMINAR

NEW YORK, Monday, October 4, 2007– The Muscular Dystrophy Association, in affiliation with the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA ALS Center at Columbia University Medical Center, will be hosting the 2007 ALS Caregivers Seminar.
The event will be held Saturday, October 20, 2007 from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion on 1150 St. Nicholas Avenue and 168th Street in Manhattan, NY. Opening remarks will be made by MDA Health Care Service Coordinator Jackie Puerta and CUMC’s Dr. Mitsumoto.
“This seminar is our way of giving something back to caregivers,” Jackie Puerta says. Caregivers are those who have taken charge of caring for the individual with ALS. The seminar, which is open to all individuals diagnosed with ALS, their family members and caregivers, will feature useful discussions about available resources and their contacts, tips on enduring care and a lecture on future planning.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease) is prominent among the neuromuscular diseases in MDA’s program. ALS, which affects some 30,000 Americans, progressively destroys the nerve cells controlling muscles in healthy adults, leading to paralysis, and eventually death.
The exact cause of the devastating disease is unknown. MDA leads the scientific battle to find a cure for the disease, funding more ALS research than any other voluntary health agency in the United States.
Speakers include Santa J Crisall, Adult Primary Care/Gerontology Nurse Practitioner, who will speak about palliative care. Jennifer Devine, member of Visiting Nurse Service of New York, is speaking on tips for caregivers of patients and Judith D. Grimaldi, Esq. of Freedman Fish & Grimaldi, LLP with a speech on estate and long term care planning.
Gina Hernandez, a caregiver of her mother, finds seminars like this one informative and well needed. “I need to work and find it difficult to balance a job and care for my mother at the same time,” Gina says. Forums of learning and open discussion such as the ALS Caregivers Seminar help ease the hardships for most caregivers and provide alternatives to their current methods.

In the early 1950’s Lou Gehrig’s widow Eleanor, who then served as a MDA national campaign chairperson, helped the Association launch what remains today the greatest private-sector effort to fight ALS. Since then, MDA has directed over 210 million toward research and health care services to combat this baffling disease.
In addition to funding millions of dollars in ALS research annually, some of the services that MDA provides include 235 MDA clinics, more than 30 MDA ALS centers, assistance with the purchase and repair of various durable medical equipment, equipment loan closets, support group meetings and informative publications including an ALS specific web-site www.mda-als.org.
If you would like to register to attend this seminar please contact Manhattan’s MDA Office at 212-689-9040 or email Jackie Puerta at jpuerta@mdausa.org

—###—