"FloridaMS.org"

Mission Statement
MS Centers of Florida Foundation has been established to help patients affected with MS to overcome the life challenge of confronting and living with a chronic illness. The Foundation will work tirelessly toward the objective of supporting the finest in medical, rehabilitative, and psychosocial care, and providing superior education opportunities. The Foundation will support research in a clinical way by looking at new treatment strategies that can be applied to patient care today. This research may contribute to the discovery of the cause, and ultimately the cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

To provide a continuum of comprehensive services to MS patients and their families.

The Foundation

In 1998, Robin Williams, wife, mother and resident of Vero Beach, Florida was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Robin became intensely interested in the disease and sought to communicate with other MS patients. With the help of her neurologist, she began meeting with other recently diagnosed patients in the Vero Beach area. It didn’t take Robin long to realize there was a critical need for additional services in this local area. During the next four years, she established relationships with numerous professionals who shared her views. This hard work and dedication ultimately resulted in the establishment of the MS Centers of Florida Foundation (MSCFF) as a nonprofit organization.

The MSCFF was founded to fill a gap in the support structures that have evolved over the decades to help people with MS. The model of care for MS has shifted dramatically in the past decade, creating new opportunities for medical treatment and research, but also putting unprecedented pressure on the historical model of care. While still vitally important, education is not enough. Missing is the presence of local organizations that will focus on patient care issues.

The MSCFF is dedicated to supporting the medical treatment of MS, by supporting initiatives that focus the best and brightest medical minds on the practical challenge of dealing with an immune system gone haywire. To this end, the MSCFF is committed to supporting initiatives that will yield advances in the medical care of people with MS. These advances are expected to be pragmatic in nature, including the development of medical treatment models for medical practices associated with the MSCFF.

The Foundation will also support local, clinical research (e.g. studies looking at new treatment strategies that can be applied to patient care today), as opposed to basic scientific research (e.g. cellular biology or molecular chemistry). The MSCFF is also uniquely committed to providing assistance to individuals and families struggling with MS. This assistance will take the form of psychosocial support and like services. The goals of the MSCFF also include the development and provision of unprecedented education and understanding of this complex illness to people who must learn to live with the changes that come with the diagnosis of MS.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) was founded to support basic scientific research and patient education, and they have done a wonderful job in these respects. The MSCFF fully supports the NMSS, but clearly has different goals and objectives.

If you have MS, the MSCFF has been founded to help you deal with this difficult illness. If you have a loved one with MS, the Foundation is also here to help you help the one you love.