Advocacy Toolkit

Tools for Advocacy Success 

Because you all have your own unique experience with tinnitus, you are truly the best advocates when it comes to convincing lawmakers that public funding for tinnitus need to continually increase!

One of the most helpful things you can do is write letters to your Senators and Representatives to communicate to them as their constituent that the time to increase public funding for tinnitus research is now! If you are unsure who your Senators and Representatives are, you can visit Congress.org and use the "Find your Officials" feature located at the top right of the page.

We have provided a sample letter for you to download (the link opens a Word document) and use as is, or personalize to capture your own tinnitus experience (recommended). This letter will make it easy for you to communicate with these influential policy makers about ATA's advocacy agenda. Make sure they know that you live in their state or district by including your address in your signature. Please also download the PDF to the right which will support your letter and illustrate the severity of tinnitus in both civilian and military populations.

This following information will provide you with the additional tools you need to make the evident case of why tinnitus research deserves public funding for research. 

Tinnitus Continues to Increase in Returning Veteran Population

The following graphs show the dramatic increases in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are service-connected for tinnitus. It shows the increases over the last three years and demonstrates the sharp increases in service-connected disability payments to veterans for tinnitus. Tinnitus has been the number-one service connected disability for returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan for three consecutive years.

This graph shows the most common service-connected disabilities of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan as of July 2009. 

The following graphs demonstrate the staggering increases in service-connected disability payments to veterans from all periods of service and reflect some of the largest increases in tinnitus disability payments to veterans, ever. Compared with $10 million research budget (between all public and private funding for research in the U.S.), these payments are expected to exceed $2.26 billion for tinnitus alone by the end of 2014. This severe disconnect, coupled with the exciting advances in tinnitus research, promote an unmatched urgency as to why we need a tinnitus cure now more than ever.