2020 - 2021 Impact Review

A word from our CEO

Over the last 12 months, our focus has been dominated by supporting MSers through the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, a time of great uncertainty for everyone, but especially for people living with long-term conditions like MS.

I’m incredibly proud of how the Shift.ms team, volunteers and community have come together to support each other through these difficult times. We are delighted to share some of our key achievements over the past year in this impact report.

Everything that we’ve achieved wouldn’t have been possible without the committed support of our corporate and trust and foundation partners, individual supporters and fundraisers, who have continued to passionately and generously support our mission. I’d also like to extend my sincere gratitude to our staff team, volunteers and trustees, who continue to amaze me with their passion and commitment to our mission.

Together, we will continue to work to ensure that the Shift.ms community is here for every MSer who needs our support – no matter what.

Thank you so much.

George Pepper
CEO

Reacting to the pandemic

Shift.ms has seen unprecedented demand for our services over the past year as more people reached out to others for support, or sought to make sense of complex and fast-evolving health information together in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We supported MSers by:

Lowering the barrier to accessing 1-2-1 connections
Providing co-designed health information
Collaborating with leading healthcare specialists and community members to provide mental health support
Researching into the evolving needs of our community

Impact on MSers

71% of MSers made a meaningful connection‍

Co-vid Companion aimed to reduce isolation and loneliness by connecting MSers via video call during the pandemic.

76% of MSers feel there are many people with MS they can trust completely

The Buddy Network, which matches a newly diagnosed MSer with an experienced MS Buddy, has helped newly diagnosed MSers adjust to their diagnosis, get informed about the condition and reduce isolation.

“I was diagnosed just before the beginning of lockdown. I was alone, scared and unprepared. Knowing I could talk to my buddy was what kept me going. A match was found for me very quickly. That was really great. Timing is everything.“

80% of MSers plan to practice the skills they learnt via PPE for the Mind, our MSer-led health education programme

PPE for the Mind is an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy programme co-designed by community members and consultant neuropsychologist Jo Johnson which aimed to help MSers build their mental resilience during the pandemic.

1,500 MSers shared their perceived risks and concerns regarding COVID-19

The MS & COVID-19 study aimed to identify how the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting MSer care from both the MSer and MS healthcare professional (HCP) perspective. This research has since been reported in a white paper to influence policy and support HCPs to better support their patients in their key challenges including lack of MS-specific guidance from government/public health organisations and lack of MS-specific unified guidance from HCPs.

Alongside responding to the evolving needs of MSers during the pandemic, over the past year we:

Grew our community to over 41,000 members increasing our reach to newly diagnosed MSers;
Worked in partnership with the community, who contributed 2,915 hours last year as Buddies, bloggers, on social media takeovers and as film participants. 100% agreed that volunteering had helped them feel connected to others and 91% agreed that volunteering had helped them to feel more empowered.
Continued to create content in collaboration with MSers, with our film Sidecar being watched over 250,000 times. Sidecar tells the story of Kush, who's tackling the fear of onset of advanced MS and the impact this may have on his quality of life.

‘For all the medical professionals have read up about it, they will never really get it! That’s not a criticism, just an observation. People here really do get it!’

‘Shift.ms makes me feel comfortable and confident enough to actually talk about MS and allows me to connect and read about people and their relationship with MS. thank you for giving us a voice!’