MND Australia, in partnership with MND WA, is proud to host the International ALS/MND meetings in Perth in 2019. This will be an opportunity for the Australian MND community to come together with their peers and leading international researchers from around the world to present and debate key innovations in their respective fields. All meetings will be held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
On 26 June the Financial Services Council (FSC) issued a press release announcing a moratorium on genetic testing and life insurance captured under FSC Standard No 11. The moratorium allows Australians to get up to $500,000 of life cover without disclosing an adverse genetic test result.
Over 150 occupational therapists, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, dietitians, social workers, COS, MND Clinic Coordinators, doctors and others from across NSW and beyond attended the 8th Biennial MND NSW Special Interest Group (SIG) workshop on 2 July 2019 at West Ryde. This year the MND SIG workshop was at capacity six weeks out from the event. It is a positive sign of the commitment clinicians and community care professionals who work with people living with MND have to improving their knowledge and clinical practice for the benefit of those living with the disease.
Many portable devices such as mobile phones and tablets have built-in accessibility settings which have been designed to make these devices easier for individuals to use. These can include voice control, one handed mode, speech to text, increased font size and more. Each device has different accessibility setting options and below are some links to accessibility settings for common devices (current as at 1 August 2019).
During our recent Care for Carers Program in Gladesville, three former carers came along to speak with the group about their personal experiences of caring for their partner with MND. Many thanks to Dianne, Philip and Colin for coming along to share your experiences. It was so valuable for the course participants to have the opportunity to hear these personal insights about what contributed most significantly to enhancing their quality of life as a couple, as they adjusted to living with MND. Each of these former carers spoke about the social and practical benefits gained by being willing to accept offers of support and involvement from their family, friends and personal community. Some other life-enhancing suggestions included:
