Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week

13 September 2010

What You Need to know about Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week TODAY!

Yes, today is the big day! The beginning of this year’s Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week!

I know you’ll want to get involved, so here are some ways you can be a part of it. Do note, I’ve been having problems with their website today (it’s probably being mobbed by adoring fans right now), but if the links don’t work now, just try again later.

Invisible Illness Conference: This year there will be a seminar a day, each one 90 minutes long. If you listen live, you can even call in. If not, you can listen to archives. Each seminar will begin at 10:30am Pacific Time. The clock below should show you the current time in that time zone. See the Conference Schedule here. The actual conferences are right here, live and then archived.
If you didn’t already see the introductory videos, be sure to see those here. That will give you an idea what this is all about, and the special covert project that’s happening this year. 😉
Write a blog post, Facebook note, etc. Today is the day to do that, but if you can’t, try to post something this week. An easy idea is the "30 Things…" Meme. But there are even more ideas here. Once you’ve posted on your blog, you can add yourself to the list here to tell others about it!
There are more ways you can help here!
Sign up for the daily >Invisible Illness Week updates, and receive a free ebook. Look to the right of the page for the sign-up form.
You like to Tweet on Twitter? All the twitter information for this week is right here.

All right, that should keep you busy for a while. Don’t miss today’s seminar, Living with Invisible Illness, why it hurts, how to cope with life coach Mary Yerkes, author and speaker Maureen Pratt, and psychologist Georgia Shaffer. I know at least two of these ladies personally deal with chronic illness, so they speak from experience.

Time at the
Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week
Headquarters

23 August 2010

Invisible Illness Week 2010

James News, Resources 1

Invisible Illness Week is almost here again! Scheduled for the 13th-19th of September 2010, this is the 9th year – and it’s less than a month away!

This year, there will still be online seminars, though not as many as in past years. But there will still be online resources, people blogging all over the world (will you be one of them?), and some other fun activities.

I’ll let Lisa explain something that will be going on this year – sounds like fun! Also, another video below with a general introduction to Invisible Illness Week, created for last year’s events.

(Incidentally, I have to admit I didn’t really like the idea that you’re about to hear about when I first heard it. But the more I think about it, the more I like it …)

15 September 2009

You’re not missing Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, are You?

James Resources 2

… I hope not! It’s on right now, right until the 20th (Sunday), so take advantage of it live if you can! There are opportunities to call in, there are prizes, and other ways to participate.

There are lots of online seminars (that’s right, you don’t even have to leave home!), with lots of down-to-earth topics to get you thinking and give you resources. Those will be going on all week until Friday. For example, what if you have chronic migraine, and you have a crisis situation on top of that? What do you do in a crisis, when sometimes you feel like your whole life is a crisis? That’s the topic of the seminar at 12pm (USA Pacific Time) today.

There are many more excellent seminars coming up later in the week – on Wednesday, Jenni Prokopy from ChronicBabe.com will talk about It’s OK to say NO: Building Healthy Boundaries (we all know it’s ok to say no – but … um … how do you do that??).

Also on Wednesday Marcia Ramsland, author of Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay That Way will talk about simplifying your home.

Also coming up – Real Talk About Men and Chronic Illness, When Your Child is Chronically Ill, Helping Others Understand Your Pain, Being a Teenager with a Chronic Illness – and much more!

There are also many articles online, and guest bloggers with many helpful topics. For example, Will You Receive Disability Benefits If You have an "Open and Shut" Case? and When Your Children Are Ill.

Go now to the main Invisible Illness Week site to listen to archived seminars (you can also subscribe to the podcast), read articles, subscribe to the twitter feed, and do much more!

Headache and Migraine News is proud to be an official sponsor of this year’s Invisible Illness Week. Take advantage of the many resources available, and help get the word out about invisible illnesses of all kinds.

14 August 2009

Invisible Illness Week 2009 – Just 1 Month Away!

James Resources 0

Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week (or you can call it Invisible Illness Week for short) is only one month away – I hope many of you will be able to take in some of the seminars that are planned.

This year Headache and Migraine News will be involved as an official sponsor. I would love to be involved more, but this time around my schedule is making it more difficult. But I encourage you to check out invisibleillnessweek.com to find resources, and help spread the word!

Of course there are many illnesses that are not obvious to those around us, and many of those are headache disorders and migraine, or diseases and conditions in which headache and migraine are a major issue. Invisible Illness Week is partly about bringing resources and hope to those with invisible illness, partly about networking and getting together and sharing, and partly about raising awareness.

Here are just a few of the topics that will be covered in the free online seminars:

Finding Health Insurance Coverage with a Pre-existing Condition (good one – and the speaker is an attorney and advocate for patients with chronic illness!)
Coping with Crises on Top of Chronic (doesn’t sound familiar to anyone, does it?)
Can Versus Should: Pregnancy, Children and Chronic Illness (issues a lot of people are dealing with)
Find the Job You Desire and Can Do (a tough one with invisible illness – get ready for some great tips!)
Surgery Preparation (now that sounds practical!)

These are only a few of the topics – read more and meet the great speakers here.

The dates are 14-21 September 2009 – promote it, check out the info on Twitter, Facebook, the blog tour, and much more – start here!

24 October 2007

Transcripts from Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week

James Resources 0

There are now some transcripts available from the online conference during National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week. For some reason, I’m not yet seeing transcripts for the last two days – either they’re not all up yet or it’s just me.

Anyway, be sure to check them out, especially if you weren’t able to make it to the actual sessions. I made it to a few, but – appropriatelyy enough – migraine attacks kept me away from most of them. Some topics that were covered:

Don’t BE Invisible: Workplace Success with INVISIBLE Chronic Illness
Taking a Stand: How to Avoid Medical Mistakes
Parenting When You Have a Chronic illness
Invisible Disabilities: But You LOOK Good! / Statistics / What to Say / What Not to Say / How to Help?

Check out the transcripts here! And remember, many of the speakers have websites and books and blogs that you can check out. Once you click on the transcript, you can also read background on the speaker and find lots of helpful links.

Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week