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NEWS AND EVENTS NEW PATIENT MESSAGE BOARD AND CHAT ROOM !! launched. Please visit these new features of our site! |
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WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! IN ORDER TO MOVE FORWARD WITH OUR ORGANIZATION, WE NEED VOLUNTEERS WITH ALL TYPES OF SKILLS. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT OUR VOLUNTEER PAGE. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
We are a voluntary education, support, resource, and advocacy network dedicated to improving the lives of those who have disabling chronic illnesses that are often misunderstood, contested, or not believed by society and the medical profession.
This answer is simple:
Although understanding of and services for the chronically ill have improved over the years, those with chronic illnesses that are misunderstood and often not believed in by doctors have very different needs and are not receiving the services and compassion they so desire. Many sufferers of these illnesses often don’t even get compassion from sufferers of other more accepted chronic illnesses. Some of these misunderstood and contested illnesses include Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic Lyme Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and other “mystery illnesses” that are often stigmatized by society and the medical profession. In order to improve the lives of those living with these illnesses, an organization must exist solely dedicated to them
To promote awareness of, compassion towards and improve conditions for those living with chronic illnesses that are often ignored and stigmatized by society and the medical profession. CICAN will achieve this mission through providing support and resources to sufferers of these illnesses, engaging in advocacy related to these illnesses, educating society on reality of living with these illnesses and how to prevent them, and to unify doctors and organizations dedicated to these misunderstood illnesses.
• Educate others on the realities of living with misunderstood and underfunded chronic illnesses.
• Provide health education on coping with and preventing these illnesses
• Develop a resource network for patients coping with these illnesses to include doctors, financial resources, support groups, and other related resources.
• Develop a patient speaker’s bureau to share personal stories with living with an illness that is misunderstood and ostracized by society and most doctors.
• Address fragmentation of services for those with misunderstood medical problems.
• Develop support groups for those with illnesses that are misunderstood and often not believed.
• Provide forums where doctors and other healthcare professionals and support group leaders dedicated to misunderstood illnesses can unite and exchange resources and ideas.
• Engage in advocacy on a state and national level to improve funding for research and to revise legislation for these types of illnesses.
• Work to obtain grants to assist patients with paying for alternative healthcare.
• Work with health reform organizations to improve conditions for those living with these illnesses.
• Work to change attitudes of doctors who do not currently believe in these illnesses.
• Address the impact of these illnesses as a public health issue.
We focus on diseases that are underfunded, underrecognized, and often considered mysterious or non existent by the medical profession. Some of these include: ,br>
• Late stage Lyme disease
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Multiple Chemical Sensitivities
• Chronic Migraines
• Chronic Intractable Pain
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Certain Autoimmune Diseases that are underrecognized
Her professional background is in health education and social services. She has had graduate training in both public health and social work. From both personal and professional experience, she is familiar with the fragmentation of the healthcare system when it comes to chronic illness, and even more so when it comes to chronic illnesses that have yet to be understood and legitimiezed. She acknowledges the lack of community education about these types of chronic illnesses and the loneliness they can bring. Therefore, she decided to start this comprehensive network, which she hopes to develop into a non-profit in the near future. In addition to her work with the chronically ill and persons with various other disabilities, she has done freelance writing for a chronic illness magazine and is currently a contributing editor/writer for medpedia.com, an upcoming collaborative medical website.
Our founder recently moved here from NY two and a half ago with her husband and kitties. She moved to Arizona, needing a warm dry climate due to a chronic illness, which she has been living with for 15 years.
Listen to Nancy's podcasts
Visit Nancy's blog on chronic illness.
