Recognizing TS Awareness Month

Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month is May 15 - June 15

Check out more information below on these opportunities to help spread awareness:

Follow us on social media

Help Light your Town Teal

Participate in wear Teal on Tuesdays and an optional opportunity to purchase a T-shirt to help you help the cause

Grab some graphics to share on social media to help spread TS awareness

View and share our YouTube videos about TS

Use our prewritten article to submit to the news outlets in your area about TS awareness month

 

The best and easiest way to help spread TS awareness is to follow us on Social Media. Click on the social media links above to connect with us. Anytime you see a post that is helpful to you, share it and help others learn too!

 

Join Our 2024 Light Up Your Town Teal for TS Campaign!

Let’s work together to get every town across PA lit up Teal in honor of TS awareness month! Last year a few of our volunteers successfully got Buildings and Bridges in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia lit up Teal in honor or TS awareness Month. This year our PR committee is building on their progress. Do you have a building or bridge that lights up in your town? Many towns in PA, big and small, have buildings or bridges with this capability. Consider asking them to light up teal on May 21, 2024. Wouldn’t it be cool if they all lit up on the same night! We could crash social media with all the pictures. We could approach our local news outlets, blogs, and podcasts and ask them to cover this exciting initiative. Think of the awareness we could spread!

Sign up to here to help!

Once you sign-up you will receive an email with tips and resources to help you get started in your area! You will also receive a link to the list of all the buildings requested and/or participating. Once you have requested a place you may add it to the list. Let’s see how many buildings you can get lit up!

Keep the Teal for Tuesday going!

We are encouraging every person/every family member affected by TS to wear Teal on Tuesdays during TS awareness month. Post a picture on social media or share it with us to post on our pages. Caption it with Teal on Tuesdays for Tourette Awareness. This will help leaps and bounds by helping to spread TS awareness. The more people who hear about TS, the better acceptance there is!

To make this easier we are offering a pop-up T-shirt sale via printify. The shirts we designed will be printed and sent via a third-party provider through printify. This TS Awareness shirt sale will help raise awareness and funds for TS support and services.

Order Your Shirt Today

TS Awareness Movement on Social Media: You can share any or all of the images we created on your own Facebook, Instagram or X account. Just click here to find the images you would like to download and post, share or tweet! Make it your own by adding your own story!

Images for Facebook

Images for Instagram

Images for X

 

Look for our TS Awareness Videos on YouTube

 
Help spread awareness by submitting a news release to your local news outlets. Look them up online and find an email address to submit stories. Send them an email introducing yourself and telling them how you are affected by TS. Ask them to share the following article. Let us know if they reply and if it will be published.

Article for Immediate Release:  Harrisburg, PA:  “Tourette Syndrome is a unique disorder and it needs a unique awareness month” stated Sherrie Wivell, the Executive Director of the PA Tourette Syndrome Alliance.  That is why our month for Tourette syndrome is May 15th – June 15th.   

Tourette Syndrome is a life-long neurological disorder affecting up to 1 in every 100 school-aged children.  The chief symptoms–involuntary movements and vocalizations–are called “tics”.  Tics change frequently and wax and wane in frequency, making some days worse than others.  “Often a person with TS is not aware of their tics” stated Wivell.  “Just like blinking, which we all do without thinking.”

Common media portrayals of Tourette Syndrome (TS) often show one of the rarest symptoms or “coprolalia” where a person with TS swears or makes inappropriate comments.  According to Wivell, this symptom affects only 5-15% of all those diagnosed with TS.  “Showing only this extreme symptom does not promote a full understanding of this complex disorder” stated Wivell. 

Many individuals diagnosed with TS are also affected by associated disorders.  The most common of these are Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) , Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD), and Learning Disabilities. 

If you are concerned that your child may have symptoms of Tourette Syndrome or if your child is already diagnosed, you can reach out to the PA Tourette Syndrome Alliance (PATSA) for information and assistance. 

PATSA is a state-wide nonprofit organization that provides information, education and disability advocacy for individuals with TS, their families, schools and communities in any area of Pennsylvania.  “It is our goal to promote awareness and understanding so that children with TS are able to succeed in school and in life” stated Wivell.

For more information about Tourette Syndrome or PATSA, check out our website at www.patsainc.org.