In early April, Jeanette Ashlock sat confidently in a front row seat before Congress. While her MS diagnosis had been confirmed more than 20 years earlier, she’d endured a long road of symptoms and setbacks. And now she had the opportunity to speak to the world in support of the expansion of telehealth services.
“When the staffer from the Society came to pick me up, we were driving and talking, and I thought, ‘I’m about to speak for the whole community — not just for the MS community, but for others who need telehealth as well,” she says. “That experience, to set the tone and be able to look up while reading my testimony and have the committee be paying attention to me, I thought, ‘They’re listening to what I’m saying. My story is making an impact. I hope I was able to show them that telehealth is for everyone. It exists for the doctors and the patient.
”Jeanette lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, and began experiencing the benefits of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. “A lot of people have never used telehealth. It’s like a doctor’s appointment at home. You can have your personal list of questions and just feel like you’re both in [your] living rooms having a conversation. You have the doctor’s undivided attention. With telehealth they can observe a little and then make a treatment plan. It’s another tool in our toolbox,” she says.
She adds, “You can invite someone in to join you, which is very important with an MS exacerbation.” Jeanette’s youngest son lives 1,500 miles away, and thanks to telehealth, he is able to frequently sit in on doctor’s visits with her. “My son is in Texas, and I can give him the link to a telehealth appointment and he can attend with me.” In this way, telehealth benefits carepartners, as well.
Path to Activism
Upon her diagnosis in 2001, Jeannette started exploring the Society website, eventually discovering information about support groups. After some time, she partnered with a local nurse to help lead a support group in Williamsburg. She later participated in Walk MS® and began learning more about the Society’s advocacy efforts. She attended Virginia State Action Day in 2019 and 2020 and her first Public Policy Conference in 2020. “Without the Society, we’d be doing this by ourselves. Even the doctors rely on the Society for information to share with people who are diagnosed,” she says.
Jeanette knows how important building belonging is. She has witnessed firsthand the power of using her voice to make change for an entire community. “I don’t want anyone to have a beginning like me. My beginning was alone — no one could relate or understand. That was 8 years of loneliness and deep depression. I want to be that voice: that person who encourages another person and says, ‘You can do this. Let me give you some tools on how to get this done,” she says.
Her deeper involvement in advocacy opened more doors for Jeanette. “We are the voice that is making a change. We have our feet on the ground, doing the work in the background, saying, ‘We need this to happen for us, for our community.’ This is why we need support.” She is optimistic that her testimony made a lasting difference for all people affected by MS, caregivers included.
Continue reading, from NMSS website
