ALS Family Support

ALS Moves Fast. We Help You Stay Ahead of It.

When ALS enters your family, the weight lands on everyone, and the practical demands start right away. There's equipment to find, insurance to fight and talks no one feels ready for. Ellipses handles the logistics and provides the emotional support so your energy goes where it matters most: your time together.

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The ALS Dilemma

The healthcare system wasn't built for the pace of this disease. We were.

ALS requires a level of coordination that most families have never had to manage before, and the standard healthcare system moves too slowly to keep up with it. Equipment approvals take weeks. Insurance appeals take months. Meanwhile, the disease keeps progressing. We step into that gap and work at the speed ALS actually requires.

The Clinical Gap

"No one told us what to do at home."

"The clinic gave us the diagnosis, but no one told us what to do at home when things change. Who helps us manage that?"

The Ellipses Bridge

Proactive Care Coordination

We plan ahead of the disease, not behind it. We help your home care team and medical providers get ready for the next stage before it arrives.

The Logistical Gap

"Insurance keeps saying no."

"We need a power chair, a ramp, and speech technology. The insurance company keeps saying no and I don't have time for this."

The Ellipses Bridge

Equipment & Benefits Advocacy

We know the insurance and grant options for ALS. We push for the equipment and home changes your family needs, and we know where to find funding when insurance falls short.

The Emotional Gap

"I'm grieving someone who is still here."

"I'm running a medical facility in my own home. And I'm supposed to be present for all of it."

The Ellipses Bridge

Caregiver Support

We take the paperwork off your shoulders, like insurance calls, FMLA forms and equipment orders, so you can go back to being a spouse, a child or a parent. We also connect you with therapy for the emotional challenges no one else can carry for you.

Illustration: the kinds of things families tell us. Not quotes from specific clients.

Your Path Through ALS

Support That Evolves with You

ALS has clear stages. What a family needs at diagnosis is very different from what they need a year later or at the end of life. Our support is built for each stage, with the right mix of coordination, therapy and caregiver support.

Stage 1 / Early Stage
The Pivot
Focus: Building the care team, learning what's available and starting the hardest conversations.
Plan / Heal

Multidisciplinary Clinic Coordination

We help you connect with the ALS clinic you choose, close to home or at a center such as Duke Health or UNC Health, and get the most from every visit with the full team: neurologist, respiratory therapist, speech therapist and social worker.

Resource Mapping Before the Crisis

Most families learn what's available only when they badly need it. We map out ALS resources early, like the ALS Association, local equipment loan programs and grants, so you're not searching in a panic.

Processing the Diagnosis

An ALS diagnosis is one of the hardest things a family can hear. We connect family members with therapists who understand grieving before a loss and the special weight of this disease. Not to fix what can't be fixed, but so no one carries it alone.

Stage 2 / Middle Stage
The Adaptation
Focus: Getting around, technology, money help and keeping daily life working.
Plan / Grow

Equipment Sourcing and Coordination

Power wheelchairs, Hoyer lifts and speech devices need to be in place before they become emergencies. We handle finding them, working with insurance and coordinating delivery, so the right equipment is ready when it's needed.

Financial and Legal Advocacy

Social Security disability applications, FMLA and long-term care insurance claims: we handle the paperwork and the calls. These processes are complex and time-sensitive, and most families are handling them while also giving full-time care.

In-Home Care Team

When more care is needed at home, we find and check out in-home caregivers. If needed, we help train them on the challenges of ALS: moving safely, communication needs and the emotional side of this work.

Sustaining the Caregiver

The middle stage of ALS is often when caregiver exhaustion first becomes serious. We connect family members with coaches and therapists who help caregivers build the routines and boundaries they need to keep going.

Stage 3 / Advanced Stage
The Sustain
Focus: Dignity, and end-of-life care.
Plan / Heal

Dignity-Based Advocacy

We help families work through advance directives and the move to hospice. We help with the conversations that need to happen and make sure your loved one's wishes are clearly written down and shared with the care team.

Support for the Caregiver

At this stage, the weight on the main caregiver is unlike anything most people have faced. We connect family members with therapists who understand what it means to be there for someone you love through the end of life: to grieve while still showing up, and to take care of yourself while giving everything you have.

An Integrated Approach to ALS Support

Care coordination, therapy, and caregiver support, working together.
Plan

ALS Care Coordination

ALS care involves a large care team that keeps changing: neurologist, lung doctor, speech therapist, occupational therapist, respiratory therapist and palliative care, plus insurance companies, equipment vendors and often the VA. None of them talk to each other on their own. We are the main point of contact for all of it. We keep everyone on the same page and moving at the pace the disease needs.

We also know the money side. National ALS grants, disease-specific funding and VA benefits for veterans: we find what's available and go after it, to ease the cost of special equipment and care.

Heal

Therapy & Caregiver Support

ALS affects the whole family. The person with the diagnosis lives with their own reality. The people who love them carry something different: grieving before a loss, the nonstop work of daily caregiving and the guilt of having needs of their own.

We connect family members with therapists who specialize in exactly this. The goal isn't to make the situation easier than it is. It's to make sure the people holding everything together have somewhere to put the weight of it, so they can keep holding it.

Local Expertise. National Advocacy.

North Carolina's ALS resources, plus the VA system. We know both.

The Research Triangle has strong ALS medical resources. Getting to them, preparing for them and fitting them into daily life at home is a separate challenge. We help you prepare for visits at the ALS clinic you choose, close to home or at a center such as Duke Health or UNC Health, and connect you with local ALS Association chapters and equipment resources across the Triangle.

Veteran Families

Specialized VA Service Connection Experience

For veteran families, we have experience with VA service connection for ALS. VA has said veterans develop ALS at higher rates than the general population (VA, 2008), and VA benefits and caregiver support for ALS are broader than most families realize. We help families apply for them.

For families outside the Triangle, we work nationwide. Our help with the VA doesn't depend on where you live.

Ellipses Care Network is not affiliated with Duke Health or UNC Health.

Why Ellipses?

01

We Work at the Speed ALS Requires

Most healthcare and insurance systems are not built for urgency. We are. We don't wait for callbacks or let paperwork sit. When the disease is progressing, we move accordingly.

02

Working for Your Family

We work for your family, not the equipment company, the clinic or the insurance adjuster. Our advice is based only on what your loved one needs. If something is right for them, we advocate for it, even when approval is hard to get.

03

We Stay for the Whole of It

ALS is not a short engagement. The families we work with need support from diagnosis through the end of life, and the nature of that support changes significantly along the way. We don't have a discharge timeline. We stay, and we adjust with you.

You Don't Have to Figure This Out While Also Doing All of It.

The families who call us are already managing more than any one person should have to manage. They don't need a brochure. They need someone who knows what to do next. That's what we're here for.

Book a free 15-minute call
No commitment needed. Serving ALS families and veterans from Wake Forest, NC, by phone and video, nationwide.