Posts Tagged ‘american heart association’

WomenHeart was created in 1999, after these three women connected in 1998. They came to know of each other when they were interviewed separately for an article about heart attacks and women for the first issue of More Magazine. They made their own tiny support group and reached out to tens of thousands of women who were facing the same obstacles that they had endured. Out of this grew their national organization for patient advocacy focusing only on women and heart disease.

Nancy Loving became the leader as well as co-founder and executive director and brought the tiny support group of WomenHeart to a large organization that can speak of many accomplishments. Its growth has come about because of the commitment of the Board of Directors as well as the Scientific Advisory Council, corporate supporters and volunteers. These people spend many hours getting the word out about women’s heart health. In its first 10 years of activity, this organization has:

• Expanded its membership to several thousands of women who are currently living with and/or at-risk for heart disease. This includes their family members, friends, health care professionals.

• Created the only national network support groups for female heart disease patients.

• Began a support community online so that women across the country could connect as well as have a support group of other women in WomenHeart.

• Served as community educators to train more than four hundred survivors of heart disease.

These are just a few of the many goals that this special organization has reached. They hope to have an even more successful outreach during the next ten years. Their main goal is to reach even more women of heart disease, offering education, hope, and support. They also want to insure that they will have prevention information as well as early detection, proper diagnosis and treatment. For more information about this great network of women heart attack survivors visit the website at: http://www.womenheart.org/aboutUs/about.cfm

The American Heart Association is a health agency that is run by volunteers of both medical and non-medical staff. Their mission is: “Building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.” Formed in 1915 by a group of doctors and social workers, it was initially called the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease in New York City.  These people were worried that there was so little information on heart disease and they wanted to get the word out to people.

Other people became interested in this association and it spread to other cities in the United States and Canada. Six cardiologists that represented several groups of people who saw the need for a way to share findings from research and promote more study formed the American Heart Association in 1924. That was just the beginning.

Members of the AHA began thinking of ways to expand their programs so they could reach the general public. In 1948, it reorganized and started recruiting volunteers who were not medical but instead had skills in business management, public education, communication, funding raising, and community organization. This helped to really start a public outreach and allowed a great many to get involved in the process.

There were a lot of changes in the AHA during the mid 1990s. Their scientific findings started to make their way faster from the laboratories and clinics to the doctors’ offices and American homes. The American Heart Association took public stands on important issues and spoke clearly and plainly about how to control risk factors.

At last, and most importantly, the volunteers and staff of the AHA started to change the organization into something that would become relevant and vibrant in the 21st century. This change was more profound than anything they had done since 1948. At that time, the AHA changed from being a scientific society into becoming a voluntary health agency. The first step for the American Heart Association’s change was in showing that its driving force was to provide believable information on effective treatment and prevention of heart disease and strokes.

Since 1995, they have made it their mission to help all kinds of people understand about the causes of health disease and what can be done to prevent and treat it. When the AHA stands behind something, people believe it and take it seriously. This is only one of the great ways that this organization has helped to keep more people heart healthy.