New website to help with invisible MS symptom launched

27 May 2009

The MS Trust today launches StayingSmart, the web-based resource to support people living with multiple sclerosis who experience cognitive difficulties.

Everyone's experience of cognitive problems is different, but the most common problems involve memory and concentration and around half of all people living with MS experience these difficulties at some time. People have described this as "fuzzy thinking", "woolly head", or "not so sparky".

Working in collaboration with Dr Dawn Langdon, Reader is Neuropsychology at Royal Holloway University of London, the MS Trust has developed StayingSmart to help with an aspect of MS where information can be hard to find and symptoms may be frightening.

StayingSmart aims to:

support people learning about cognition
build confidence in managing these symptoms
encourage sharing of knowledge about and experiences of cognition in MS.

Talking about StayingSmart, Jeffrey Gingold author of Facing the cognitive challenges of multiple sclerosis, said, "You now have a trusted companion, where to turn when your mental rug is being yanked out from under you. Welcome to the neighbourhood of informed MS cognitive discussion."

Jeffrey will be in London on 21 June in conversation with people living with cognitive difficulties. The event will be filmed and made available on the MS Trust website later in the year.

StayingSmart

Losing concentration - Open Door article

Living with a hidden illness - article on the BBC website

Author: MS Trust