The ALS Residence Initiative

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Mission

The ALS Living Fund works to improve the quality of life for people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's Disease, through charitable grants.

Initiative One: The ALS Living Center

ALS is considered fatal, but this is not necessarily so for those who accept the terms imposed by ALS for continued life, including:

• Increasing dependence on others as paralysis progresses
• Use of communication aids as the ability to speak is lost
• Placement of a feeding tube as the ability to swallow is lost
• Respiratory support, progressing to tracheotomy and ventilator-dependence as the ability to breathe is lost

We look forward to the day when a cure is found and an ALS Living Center is no longer needed. Until then, helping ALS patients live full and enjoyable lives is the best way to truly make a difference for those who must face this disease today. It is simply the right thing to do.

Initiative Two: Respiratory Care Services

For those with ALS who live with a tracheostomy and mechanical ventilation, daily ALS-specific respiratory care provided by a qualified specialist is required to keep the lungs clear. Such care improves both quality of life and longevity by dramatically reducing the incidence of pneumonia and consequent hospitalization.

While Medicare/Medicaid and most insurance companies will pay for the equipment, at-home respiratory care by a qualified specialist is rarely covered, placing a very heavy financial burden on the patient and family.

Our Respiratory Care Initiative will help patients pay for at-home respiratory care from approved providers when such care is not covered. We will also work with insurance payers, including Medicare and Medicaid, to help them understand the need for at-home respiratory care and the financial benefit of covering such services.

Initiative Three: Speech for the Speechless

ALS can take away the ability to talk when it affects the muscles responsible for speech. Computer-generated speech can restore the ability to communicate when this happens, but the problem is further complicated when ALS has also paralyzed one’s limbs, making typing and mouse-control difficult or impossible.

The good news is that there are widely-available tools - such as eye-gaze - that can restore one’s ability to access a computer when this happens, and computers open the door to more than just speech. In addition to email, texting and the internet, a computer-generated voice can provide significant control of one’s home environment through available devices such as Alexa and Siri. Fortunately, the equipment that makes this possible is covered by most insurance. In Texas, residents also have state-provided access to such assistive communication devices.

This is all good, but not everyone embraces the technology, even when it is available, and even considering the potential it represents for a better life. The reasons for this are many, but they include the fact that the equipment itself can be intimidating, especially for someone who has made limited use of computers in their life before ALS. Sometimes, people just need a helping hand to get acquainted with the technology and to spark the motivation needed to incorporate it into their life.

Our Speech for the Speechless Initiative aims to make independent tech support available to those living with ALS in the Dallas area and struggling with their communication needs. Jeela Tamrakar is an experienced ALS caregiver with extensive skill in providing one-on-one assistance with communication devices, including help with customization of the software that can often make the difference in helping someone make full use of this technology, which offers vast improvements to quality of life for the patient, caregivers, family – quite literally everyone involved. She is offering her services in the Dallas area for a nominal cost. For those who cannot afford it, our initiative can provide financial assistance.