Contact the ATA Right Now — 3 Minutes to Make a Difference

The $2.7 million might well have been lit on fire. Maybe they should hire former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. He is out of jail now and could make sure those funds are allocated accordingly.

Odds 10 to 1 they spend the cash 90% administrative costs and overhead. The other 10% goes to funding Acceptance and Commitment Therapy research.

 

They don’t care about tinnitus sufferers or their opinion regardless of geography. Yet they always care to collect money from the funds raised after someone commits suicide due to tinnitus... Oops... I meant depression since everyone with tinnitus (according to the ATA) lives happily ever after!

 

Hi @Jrblovsky! The ATA has historically not contributed much of their contributions to research, but the research they fund has been cure based for a good while. Here is their past research. The roadmap to a cure pretty much prevents them from funding CBT-like grants.

Past ATA Funded Research

I am sure spending a 2-3 minutes on an email to them would be worthwhile!

 

My experiences with them indicates that they DO care, but not in the most effective way. Perhaps you could share your story with them and how you've been impacted and request that they spend the money on research and not call lines?

 

I will do it to support the cause, but I feel it's a waste and that if they honestly cared they would have been advocating and procuring funding for this 30 years ago.

 

You hit the nail on the head.

 

ATA does not fund sociology studies. They do fail in the amount of contributions that they receive being dedicated to research though.

 

Any new updates from the ATA? I guess they didn't read the memo on there being a Tinnitus Week.

 

Yeah, makes me sad how mum they are compared to the BTA.

 

I don’t know if I’ve missed the opening, but I sent them an email as well.

 

I sent them your template. Thank you.

 

They don't seem to be very transparent. I reached out to them in tears a few days ago looking for help from an audiologist who can help me manage my tinnitus/noise distortion (potentially mild hyperacusis) and this woman called me right when I was starting to feel suicidal again and she spent 2 hours on the phone with me. She was so compassionate and understanding. It helped me tremendously. She got me in touch with an audiologist I'm trying to go make a 3 hour trek to go see. It might be worth it to save my life.

 

Cleveland Clinic and Duke are supposed to have good audiologists. Don't waste your time with University of Michigan or any local ones in metro Detroit. Dr. Gantz at the University of Iowa is very good I heard as well.

 

Just curious, which audiologist did she recommend?

 

Good to hear that you got a good conversation that helped you.

 

@Watasha, @Jrblovsky:

Dr. Stelios Dokianakis in Holland, MI. I still haven't been out there and I'm planning on filling out the paperwork and getting my audiograms and other medical records to them this weekend/week.

 

ATA got my email a week ago, however I haven't got a reply back.

At least they know what I think.

 

Let's be real.



(Source)

 

Oh yeah, this is no secret. They haven't seemed to be very open to change as well.

 

The BTA and the ATA are two organizations that are corrupt and compete useless in finding a cure for tinnitus.

They should not exist. Wouldn't it be nice if the money they receive was being directly donated to one of the researchers like professor Josef Rauschecker who is also lacking funding.

 

My opinion is that corrupt may be a little harsh and I disagree regarding them being useless (each for different reasons).

That said, both of them need structural reform and the BTA seems to be a pretty well run, transparent machine that works very well with Tinnitus Talk it appears.

I am a big fan of Dr. Rauschecker myself.

 

Is any follow-up being done here?

 

I'm not sure if this is the right topic, but this is good news (a copy paste from the ATA's Facebook page):

 

Another grant, one which I'm much less enthusiastic about:

 

This one is disappointing. We should all be making noise on their social media about this.

 

If the research confirms deficient GABA signaling as a cause for tinnitus, it will encourage new clinical research to alleviate tinnitus by enhancing GABA neurotransmission in the auditory pathway.

I thought we knew that upregulation of GABA has a beneficial effect on tinnitus as shown through the efficacy of benzodiazepines on numbers of tinnitus sufferers.

Is it possible to comment on the award of these grants?

 

Yes, these are copy pastes from their Facebook page. You can comment on them.

 

No checks and balances with the ATA. I left a message on phone, they never called me back. They can't even answer the basics. And when their phone messages are only asking for money, that is not good.

 

I will let you judge by yourself:

http://www.hebertlab.ca/en/publications/

 

Leave a comment on their social media. It amazes me how many people think they are really looking out for us when such a small portion of their contributions go to research.