Hypersomnia Foundation--Awareness and Education

The Hypersomnia Foundation is committed to increasing awareness of idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) in both the public arena and the medical community through outreach, education, awareness, and research. The Foundation does this, in part, through actively participating in nationwide sleep conferences and educational events, sponsoring a hypersomnia-specific patient registry whose data is available to researchers, and providing individuals and their families with free educational and other support materials.

The Hypersomnia Foundation has successfully:

• Increased its outreach in the sleep disorder and medical research community by participating in multiple sleep-related conferences, outreach and educational events in the U.S. and Canada.
• Grown our hypersomnia-focused patient registry at CoRDS (Coordination of Rare Diseases at Sanford) to over 1,500 participants, thereby collecting vital information for researchers.
• Created a series of downloadable Educational Guides for K-12 through College for students with IH and related sleep disorders, as well as their parents and school officials.
• Developed a downloadable Anesthesia Guide for people with IH to share with their medical teams before surgery, and a Patient Care Plan that can be individualized for each person.
• Crafted a downloadable IH-specific Medical Alert Card that both alerts medical personnel that the person has IH and educates the medical personnel as to what IH is and how it can interact with anesthesia and other drugs.
• Continued to share important research and other important news relating to hypersomnia via our monthly newsletter, SomnusNooze, to almost 3,000 subscribers.
• Supported a scholarship for a college-bound student with IH through a partnership with Project Sleep.
• Collaborated with our patient advisory board, comprised of individuals with IH and related disorders (and their supporters), thus helping us stay informed about issues affecting the sleep disorder community.
• Increased our Social Media outreach to over 4,900 active followers, via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Committed to support five families with a child with IH to attend a family summer camp specifically for children with sleep disorders through a partnership with Wake Up Narcolepsy.
• Expanded our online Healthcare Provider Directory of physicians experienced in the treatment of people with hypersomnias.

All people with hypersomnia deserve full and proper treatment. Optimal diagnosis and treatment derive from better knowledge and increased awareness. Your donations will help us Increase awareness of idiopathic hypersomnia through outreach, education and research.

Links:

• Hypersomnia Foundation Brochure and Medical Alert Card
• Hypersomnia Foundation Education Essentials for Students with IH
• Hypersomnia Foundation "SomnusNooze" Monthly Newsletter