Join Us in Raising Awareness for These Causes in August

By Theo Smith, Communications Intern

Patient advocacy organizations work tirelessly to educate, promote, advocate, and raise awareness and funding for their causes. Awareness months give us the opportunity to rally around a common objective and show these organizations how much we appreciate their work. Here’s how you can help advance these groups’ missions and spread awareness.

Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month

Prevent Blindness has declared August as Children’s Eye Health and Safety Awareness month to inspire parents to make their child’s vision health a priority. Family-friendly resources on a wide variety of topics that help parents take the right steps to keep their child’s sight healthy for life can be found on their website.

Ways to get involved:

• Download the Star Pupils Eye Health and Safety Curriculum. This program, which is available free for download upon request, provides teachers with interactive materials that help students learn the importance of sight, components of the eye and how we see, and how to identify objects and situations that can be dangerous to the eyes.

Psoriasis Awareness Month

More than eight million Americans are living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive efforts to cure psoriatic disease and improve the lives of those affected. NPF has evolved to become the leading patient advocacy group for the millions of Americans with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

Ways to get involved:

• Spread the word on social media and tag NPF to raise awareness.
• Read the NPF blog to learn more about psoriasis and ways to get involved.

National Immunization Awareness Month

National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) is an annual observance held in August to highlight the importance of vaccination for people of all ages. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created a resource toolkit to help navigate the health care community about immunization during August and throughout the year.

Ways to get involved:

Post on social media to promote awareness for immunizations. Find graphics here.

Learn about vaccines recommended for you and your family through the Interactive Vaccine Guide.

Use or adapt the sample newsletter announcements to spread the word about National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) to your network.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a disease that robs people of physical strength by affecting the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord, taking away the ability to walk, eat, or breathe. It is the number one genetic cause of death for infants. Cure SMA is dedicated to the treatment and cure of spinal muscular atrophy. They fund groundbreaking research and provide families the support they need for today.

Ways to get involved:

• Update your Facebook or Twitter profile picture to show your support for SMA Awareness Month.
• Organize a group “candle lighting.” At sunset on the second Saturday of August, the SMA community lights candles to remember those who have passed away from SMA, and to honor those who are living with SMA. This year’s candle lighting date is August 10, 2019.