Hope. That’s the message being spread to the more than 100 ALS sufferers around Southwest Florida.

“It provides them comfort. It provides them hope. And at least they know they have people in this area who are supporting them,” says Alan Cunningham, Director of the ALS Clinic.

Lee Memorial Health System has teamed up with the Florida Chapter of the ALS Association to open an ALS Clinic at the Outpatient Center at Plantation Road, a facility designed to cater to the emotional and physical needs facing ALS patients and their families. “There has been a tremendous need in this community for ALS specialized care so when the opportunity finally came, I think it was something that not only our organization jumped at but patients in this community were so thrilled about,” explains Kamden Kuhn, Spokesperson for the ALS Association.

Patients are brought into this room first, where they and their families will get the rundown of the morning’s events. “We revolve around the patient,” says Cunningham. They are then ushered into private patient rooms where respiratory care experts, speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, even dieticians stop in, monitor the patient’s care, and help develop new strategies going forward based on their condition.

“Studies show that patients who are followed in these types of multiple-disciplinary clinics actually have improved survival,” adds neurologist Dr. Adam Heller, Assistant Clinical Director of the ALS Clinic.

Until now, many patients have had to travel across the state for this kind of care. “Because of their needs and of their combination of that with their disability, the idea of one-stop shopping for all of their health care needs actually makes rational sense,” says Dr. Heller.

The ALS Clinic takes place on the second Saturday of the month from 8 -12. The next one is this Saturday, October 10th. For more information, you can call 239-343-0776.