United Spinal Updates

United Spinal Joins Forces to Create the Spasticity Alliance

United Spinal Association is joining with National Stroke Association and three other advocacy groups to raise awareness about spasticity and help people living with spasticity to resume normal daily activities.

Symptoms of spasticity include stiff, rigid muscles, involuntary contractions or muscle spasms, which may make it more difficult for a person to move or perform certain activities.

Those symptoms are what people with affected by stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis — experience.

The Spasticity Alliance will include the Brain Injury Association of America, Multiple Sclerosis Association of America and United Cerebral Palsy in addition to National Stroke Association and United Spinal Association.

“With the founding of the Alliance, there’s help in sight for those people living with the debilitating effects of spasticity,” said James Weisman, United Spinal’s president and CEO.

A website dedicated to the cause of easing spasticity’s muscle spasms and other symptoms, www.spasticityalliance.org, has launched in time for Spasticity Awareness Week, June 13-19.

The Spasticity Alliance will reach people living with spasticity and their caregivers through its web site that features a variety of educational resources, multimedia tools and personal stories—all geared toward people with specific conditions.

The Spasticity Alliance web site aims to:

• Increase awareness of spasticity
• Address the onset of spasticity and its symptoms
• Offer management options which can include a combination of medications and therapies
• Empower people living with spasticity and caregivers to discuss their symptoms with their healthcare professionals
• Provide a clearinghouse of best-of-class education tools and resources
• Act as the go-to source for spasticity-related conditions
• Build a strong alliance of advocacy organizations to create a united voice for spasticity messaging, tools and resources.

Visit www.spasticityalliance.org to learn more.