UNIFIED ADVOCACY EFFORT. What does the IDSA have that Lyme patients and advocacy groups dont have? A unified front. While the IDSA is an organized national presence, Lyme advocacy groups are working independently around the country, sometimes duplicating efforts. Lyme advocates, like those of us who work for the Lyme Disease Association of the Eastern Shore of Maryland work tirelessly to educate people about tick-borne diseases, and to provide support for those who have these diseases. However, we dont have a unified front - there is currently no national group that pulls us all together and provides support for all of our individual organizations. To better understand this concept, think about other national organizations, such as those who serve multiple sclerosis patients, Alzheimers and breast cancer patients, or even the March of Dimes. On October 5th, members of our group attended the inaugural meeting of a newly formed organization that hopes to unite all the individual Lyme associations, providing a national-level support organization. The group is called PALS, or Partners Against Lyme, and 18 states and Canada were represented at the October meeting. (Members of PAL include 49 states and 8 countries.) It was a great meeting that showed a lot of promise. The challenge now is to keep the momentum going and find enough volunteers to keep the group moving forward. Heres an executive summary of the days events and the common goals outlined by the over 200 people in attendance: paltad.org/uncategorized/executive-summary/
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:38:00 +0000
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