action alert: headache on the hill

It's no secret to headache and Migraine patients that we are in desperate need of more funding through the NIH for head pain research. Last year, the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy (AHDA) was formed to address this lack of funding. One of the ADHA's primary advocacy efforts is Headache on the Hill (HOH), a two-day lobbying effort with the US Congress.

From the AHDA's website:

The long-term goal of the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy is to provide equitable NIH funding for research on headache disorders. ... We are building on the legislative progress that began with the first HOH in September 2007 and resulted in language in the recent US Senate Appropriations Committee Report strongly urging increased NIH attention to headache disorders. If we are to realize these necessary changes in NIH funding, we must continue to make our issue heard before Congress.

So, what can you do to help? It's very simple - go to the AHDA's website and sign up for email alerts. Next week during HOH, the AHDA email Action Alerts letting us know it's time to send emails to our representatives. The AHDA will provide basic letters to send and even let us know who our individual representatives are. All we'll have to do is personalize the letters and send, which can be done in less than 10 minutes.

Last year, the AHDA had some clear victories after their lobbying efforts. Teri Robert of My Migraine Connection writes,

We know that the emails prompted by AHDA action alerts last spring had clear, positive consequences. They led to led to the adoption of the House and Senate report language that the NIH is currently responding to.

Please sign up for these email Action Alerts. It won't cost you anything other than a few minutes of your time, and can greatly help all of us in the head pain community.

More information about the AHDA.
More information about HOH from Teri Robert.
Sign up for the AHDA's email alerts.


Be well,
MJ