CEO update by Sue Brown
The launch by National Voices of their Ask Me How I Am report got me thinking about mental health. The report highlights many of the issues that ARMA has raised in relation to MSK. Mental health and MSK are not separate. Living with a long term painful condition which restricts your mobility is clearly going to have a psychological as well as a physical impact. Which is why ARMA has made mental health a priority area for our work in the last few years.…
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Category: CEO Update
Equality, diversity and inclusion
by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA
One of the priorities identified by our members for 2021 was health inequalities. We’ve recently begun discussing how this relates to MSK and what ARMA and our members might be able to do. In the course of discussions, I’ve discovered a few things which have surprised and shocked me. For instance, some newly qualified MSK professionals are choosing not to work in the NHS because of the level of racism they have experienced in NHS settings.…
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Ride the wave
by Sue Brown, ARMA CEO
There’s been an optimistic feel to ARMA in the last week. A big part of this is down to our first ever virtual annual lecture. “Great lecture and discussion. As a patient I feel much more positive after listening to this!” said one person in the chat. Andrew Bennett opened the lecture with an update on the BestMSK Health Collaborative. This was followed by a wide ranging panel discussion on partnership with Public Health, Health Education and people living with MSK conditions.…
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Delivering the Best MSK Health
by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA
I write this one year after the first lockdown was announced. It’s been a year of extremes, from the devastating number of deaths to the incredible success of the vaccination programme. For me personally it has been a year of being proud of the community that ARMA exists to represent and support. It has been a year of incredible collaboration and connection.
Our patient member organisations in particular faced a deluge of enquiries, innovated to provide online support and somehow managed to keep vital helplines open.…
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Green shoots
As I write this, the sun outside my window is shining and swathes of blue and yellow crocuses bloom in the local parks. As if that were not enough to lift the spirits, last night saw the launch of NHS England’s Best MSK Health programme. ARMA has worked for many years to raise the profile of MSK health. We have made some progress, often in very specific areas, such as the introduction of First Contact MSK Practitioners a few years ago.…
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CEO update: Looking forward together
by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA
Here we are back in lockdown, with the NHS under even more pressure and MSK services severely impacted. COVID-19 response is still dominating the work of ARMA, although we are also progressing plans for other work in 2021. There are some different issues for MSK this time around, and vaccination currently dominates our work. When some people with MSK conditions are vaccinated, the timings of MSK treatment may need to be considered.
I am delighted that ARMA can host a document setting out the principles for these timing decisions.…
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CEO update: Promoting MSK health
The incidence of MSK conditions, particularly neck and shoulder pain, has gone up during the pandemic. This represents a significant amount of pain that would not have happened without the pandemic changing the way we live and work. Which got me wondering how much of the pre-pandemic MSK conditions would have been preventable.
MSK ill-health represents many thousands of lives impacted and restricted by pain and poor mobility. However great the services we have, prevention is the better option where possible.…
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The spirit of #MSKTogether
About a year ago ARMA had a vision for a conference that would bring together stakeholders from across the MSK community to think about how we can work better together to improve the lives of people living with MSK conditions. Earlier this week that vision became a reality in the form of the Working Together conference.
The planning started back in January when I began to seek out people who were already doing this well. I had conversations with some amazing people doing incredible work to join up services across systems and to bring about excellent multi-disciplinary working.…
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Holding onto the positive
by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA
Things feel very precarious and uncertain as everywhere in the UK takes measures to control the spread of Covid-19. With the various tiered systems, the firebreak in Wales and the four-week lockdown in England, we all know that this is going to be a difficult winter, especially for people working in the NHS and those who need healthcare. ARMA will continue to support our members through whatever the winter holds and to champion the importance of MSK services.…
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Musculoskeletal health now more important than ever
by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA
At the end of Bone and Joint Week (12 – 20 October) I reflect on how much things have changed in just ten days. It is an increasingly worrying time for both healthcare professionals and people with MSK conditions. The response to Covid-19 has already had a significant impact on the MSK health of the nation. The need for good MSK services has grown. During lockdown people worked from makeshift home offices, were less active and many were afraid to use NHS services even when they needed them.…
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