Our Mission

At CARE (Center for Advocacy, Research, and Education) our mission is to make life better for people with chronic and invisible illnesses. Our primary objectives are to:

1) Empower patients by providing health-related informational resources and support

2) Confront prejudice and discrimination against people with chronic and invisible illnesses

3) Create an informed and compassionate medical culture  

4) Address systemic inequalities and environmental injustices that perpetuate chronic illness

CARE plans to accomplish these goals through comprehensive strategies at the individual and societal levels. Our objectives are to:

• provide supportive services for individuals with these illnesses 
• provide information on a variety of health topics to improve self-care and self-advocacy
• generate broader societal awareness regarding chronic and invisible illnesses through the creation of original content 
• demonstrate the research related to the unmet medical and social needs of this patient group 
• add to the current research findings
• provide educational programming for healthcare providers and students planning careers in healthcare to improve outcomes for patients with chronic and invisible illnesses
• engage in social justice efforts to end discrimination against people with invisible and chronic illnesses
• promote healthy environmental policies, given the causal role of environmental toxicity in chronic illness, and the fact that people with chronic illnesses are more severely impacted by environmental toxicity than the general population

What are chronic and invisible illnesses?

CARE defines chronic and invisible illnesses as physical conditions that impact an individual’s functioning in multiple areas of life (family, social life, work, recreation, physical activity, independence, etc.) for one year or more, and that are not well-understood in Western medicine, or noticeable by others. These conditions include chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions, chronic pelvic pain, chronic fatigue, chronic migraine, effects of traumatic brain injury, Lyme disease and coinfections, parasitic infections, mold and mycotoxin related illness, long covid, autoimmune diseases, mast cell activation syndrome, chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), and chronic physical illnesses with no diagnosis. 

We recognize the difficulty of any type of illness, mental or physical. However, our scope is limited to people with the conditions described above, because this group faces challenges that are unique and not currently being adequately addressed in conventional medicine or society in general.

CARE for People with Chronic and Invisible Illnesses is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, EIN  92-0598133.