Understanding the National MS Society's New Mental Health Guidance: Dawn Edhe, PhD

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

“The National MS Society Medical Advisory Committee decided it was important to really provide guidance to people living with MS first and foremost, but also to providers who work with people with MS on mental health, including not only what is mental health, but also what to expect from mental health care.”

The clinical objectives of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and providers has shifted in the last couple of years, focusing in on invisible symptoms and nondisease progression facets of care, in terms of mental health. Preserving mental health has become a larger conversation in the MS community, and across all of neurology. Recently, the National MS Society released new mental health guidance as a tool to be used for not only people living with MS but also for their healthcare providers.

Dawn Edhe, PhD, psychologist and professor in the department of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, sat down with NeurologyLive^® to talk about this new guidance. She provided a brief overview of the main points, as well as the goals for patients and clinicians. Edhe also mentioned how the new guidance differs from existing ones related to mental health and how it advances the conversations for MS care.