National MS Society reaching out to smaller communities in Kern County

Sept. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Delano – Over 300 people living in Kern County’s smaller communities such as Delano, Wasco and Shafter are estimated to be living with multiple sclerosis (MS).  As a result, the National MS Society is increasing efforts to identify those who have been diagnosed, and has announced it will be holding a program in Delano on Tuesday, October 4.  Kim Kotrla, Director of the San Joaquin Valley Region, said, “ We are trying to identify those people in order to bring accurate, timely, and comprehensive information and resources as they make decisions about symptom management and treatments.”

As part of Live Fully, Live Well—a comprehensive wellness program designed for people with MS and their support partners—the Society will be showing a webinar program addressing fatigue-related challenges.  Fatigue is the most common symptom of MS, and is one of the major reasons for unemployment among people with MS.  In the webinar, Juliann Hanson-Zlatev (OTR, DPT and Can Do MS Programs Consultant) will talk about the causes of fatigue and how MS-related fatigue can be treated.  Staff from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society will also be on hand to answer questions about programs and services offered locally.

This Live Fully, Live Well webinar and program will hapen Tuesday, October 4 from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm in the Scarlet Oak Conference Room of Delano Regional Medical Center located at 1401 Garces Highway.  The program is free and includes light refreshments, but pre-registration is required.  To sign up or to receive more information, call the Kern County office of the National MS Society at 661.321.9512 or email christine.grontkowski@nmss.org.

This is the second time this year the National MS Society has ventured outside of Bakersfield, where little programming has been held before.  A similar program was held in Tehachapi last April.  From that meeting, a new support group was created that is now available for people living in that area.

About Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body and it stops people from moving. Every hour in the United States, someone is newly diagnosed with MS, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men being diagnosed with the disease. MS affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S., and 2.1 million worldwide.

About the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
MS stops people from moving. The National MS Society exists to make sure it doesn’t. We help each person address the challenges of living with MS. In 2010 alone, through our national office and 50-state network of chapters, we devoted $159 million to programs and services that improved the lives of more than one million people.  To move us closer to a world free of MS, the Society also invested $37 million to support 325 new and ongoing research projects around the world. We are people who want to do something about MS NOW.  Join the movement at nationalMSsociety.org.