CLEVELAND, November 16, 2005 - Helping employers and employees learn more about arthritis and its impact on the nation's workforce is one of the goals of the Arthritis Foundation. Working Successfully With Arthritis - a new, free arthritis education program offered by the Arthritis Foundation, Northeastern Ohio Chapter and underwritten by a $15,000 Key Foundation grant - will bring this important information to the worksite.

"As more Americans are diagnosed with arthritis at younger ages (in their 20s, 30s and 40s), this disease is affecting an individual's health and quality of life," said John T. Petures, Jr., Chapter President. "As medical costs increase and younger, working-age people are diagnosed, issues of employability, income and economic self-sufficiency become paramount. There are many lifestyle changes that can improve functioning and minimize the impact of this disease."

Working Successfully With Arthritis features a presentation designed for executives, managers, human resource specialists and employees. Perfectly suited for a brown bag lunch event, the 60-minute presentation includes information on arthritis diagnosis, treatment options and simple lifestyle changes that will help attendees function better and work more productively. For more information, contact Eileen Moeller at 800-245-2275, ext. 155, or email moeller@gwis.com.

Working Successfully With Arthritis is the next generation of the Northeastern Ohio Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation's economic self-sufficiency project established in 2003, with support from the Key Foundation and KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY). Since that time, more than 750 individuals with arthritis, and their families, have benefited from educational programs led by a panel of volunteer experts including KeyBank representatives among professionals addressing medication access; financial planning; employment issues and, for those who can no longer work, the disability application process.

Why should employers care about this condition? Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in the United States, costing our economy more than $86 billion annually in lost wages, lost productivity and medical expenses. A staggering one in three Americans (70 million people) has arthritis, including 1.5 million individuals of all ages in Northeastern Ohio.

Arthritis Foundation
The mission of the Arthritis Foundation is to improve lives through leadership in the prevention, control and cure of arthritis and related diseases. The Northeastern Ohio Chapter serves individuals in 22 counties. For more information, call the "Arthritis Answers" helpline at 800.245.2275, ext. 114. Or, visit www.arthritis.org.

KeyCorp
Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $92 billion. Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services to individuals and companies throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally. Contact Key Foundation Senior Program Officer Quentin McCorvey at 216.689.5505, or Quentin_mccorvey@keybank.com, for more information about corporate grants.

Note to Editors: For up-to-date company information, media contacts and facts and figures about Key lines of business, visit our Media Newsroom at Key.com/newsroom.

KeyBank

KeyBank

KeyCorp's roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $176.2 billion at March 31, 2021. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,100 branches and more than 1,400 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC. 

More from KeyBank