National Health Council — Voluntary Health Agency Guide

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is a nonprofit, voluntary health organization whose mission is to end the devastating effects of multiple sclerosis. Through its home office and its 50-state network of chapters, the Society funds more multiple sclerosis (MS) research, offers more services to people with MS, provides more professional education programs, and advances more MS advocacy efforts than any other MS organization in the world.

Approximately 1,250 staff members and 406,360 volunteers carry out the Society's daily operations. It has some 500,000 general members, including 342,000 individuals who have MS. The Society provides services to over one million people annually and supports more than 300 research projects internationally.

About the condition(s):

Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable, chronic and often disabling disease of the central nervous system. It is the most common neurological disease affecting young to middle-aged adults and virtually each hour someone is newly diagnosed. MS is not fatal, contagious or directly inherited. MS is now treatable for the most common forms of the disease and there are at least six therapies available that can impact underlying disease process.