About
All Roads Lead to Change: Addressing Unmet Needs in the African American MS Community
All Roads Lead to Change is a multifaceted educational program for providers seeking to improve the care of African Americans living with multiple sclerosis (MS).
MS disproportionately affects certain racial and ethnic communities. African Americans—both male and female—have a higher incidence of MS compared with their Caucasian American counterparts. Furthermore, recent data show that the presentation of the disease in the African American community, including accelerated progression and greater mortality, underscores a challenging journey for African Americans diagnosed with MS. African Americans living with MS also face systemic social issues that pervade general society but are uniquely challenging in a health care setting.
The overarching learning objectives of All Roads Lead to Change are:
- Identify the impact of MS in African American patients and the barriers to appropriate MS care
- Apply strategies to minimize diagnostic and treatment delays in African American patients with MS
- Deploy a roadmap for navigating MS care for African American patients
About the Working Group
A work group convened by the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) in 2019 brought together leaders in the MS community to discuss the gaps in care and barriers African Americans living with MS face. As a result of that meeting, a paper was developed by the group, “Multiple Sclerosis and the African American Experience: Advisory Board Findings and Recommendations to Reduce the Burden of Health Disparities and Improve Care Quality.” This paper not only outlines the gaps in and barriers to care African Americans living with MS face, but also provides recommendations to address them.
To continue the momentum of this work, members of the original work group reconvened in 2020 to focus their attention on developing content for the educational activities offered by the All Roads Lead to Change program.
