Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
Influencing policy and care together for best lifelong musculoskeletal health
Two things happened in July which will be significant for MSK services: the publication of the Prevention Green Paper Advancing Our Health, and the creation of over 1,200 Primary Care Networks (PCNs) across England. ARMA will be supporting members to engage with the Green Paper and to ensure PCNs deliver what is needed for MSK. We hope all our newsletter readers will get involved too.
I was pleased to see that Advancing Our Health gives plenty of profile to MSK.…
Read more of this article
The Foundation for Research in Rheumatology (FOREUM) launches a new study.
FOREUM considers studies on sex- and gender-related issues of key importance as they may help to better understand the pathogenesis of rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases as well as to better interpret peoples’ clinical presentation and disease course. The grant aims at instigating research, which improves our knowledge on the influence of gender on pathogenesis, clinical presentation and disease course of RMDs.
Letters of intent can be submitted until 10 September 2019.…
Read more of this article
Interventions to increase physical activity
We know that keeping active is important for maintaining MSK health. The challenge is always how to encourage people to be more active. This themed review from NIHR provides some evidence about what works (and what doesn’t).
The review outlines evidence from over 50 studies of what is effective in getting people more active. Evaluations range from programmes in schools and communities to changes in transport and the environment, which are designed to promote greater activity.…
Read more of this article
This new resource
Social prescribing improves outcomes for people by giving more choice and control over their lives. It is effective at targeting the causes of health inequalities and is particularly useful for people who need more support with their mental health, have one or more long-term conditions, are lonely or isolated, and/or have complex social needs that affect their wellbeing.…
Read more of this article
Designing care for people living with both mental health problems and persistent back and neck pain
by Jenna Collins, Marketing and Communications Manager, Q Labs, The Health Foundation
In September 2018, the Q Improvement Lab (part of the Health Foundation) and Mind embarked on a year-long collaboration to understand how care can be improved across mental health and persistent back and neck pain.
The Q Lab and Mind have recently shared the first insights from 
this work, drawing on the experiences of over 100 collaborators to give an overview of why this challenge warrants attention and promising opportunities to improve care.…
Read more of this article
Guest blog by Andy Bell, Deputy Chief Executive, Centre for Mental Health
Having a musculoskeletal condition increases your risk of having a mental health problem, and people with a mental health condition are more likely to have a range of MSK problems. Yet the way services for both are organised and the ways professionals in each are trained offers little recognition of the overlaps between them.
Mental health and MSK conditions share some common traits and challenges. Both are complex and diverse.…
Read more of this article
NICE are inviting organisations to register as a stakeholder for the guideline: ‘Safe prescribing and withdrawal management of prescribed drugs associated with dependence and withdrawal’.
Registered stakeholders will have the opportunity to comment on the draft scope and guideline during consultation and all comments received from registered stakeholders will be considered and responded to individually. You will also be privy to an embargoed release of the guideline prior to publication in the public domain.
To register as a stakeholder, please complete the online form from the NICE website, and you can find more information about NICE’s guideline work here.
Last year, ARMA members helped Glykeria Skamagki, the senior lecturer in Physiotherapy at Coventry University, with the first stage of a study into chronic musculoskeletal conditions and their management at the workplace. The results were very interesting and now to follow-up the researchers are conducting a survey to identify the strategies that older employees use to manage chronic musculoskeletal conditions at the workplace.
The aim is to understand the problems highlighted at the interview stage, explore the opinion of the larger population, and ultimately to help people work better.…
Read more of this article
IMplementation of Physical Activity into routine Clinical pracTice in Rheumatic Musculoskeletal DiseaseThe IMPACT-RMD study aims to raise awareness on the importance of physical activity in people with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMDs). The goal is to help and support managing healthcare practitioners to understand more about physical activity as well as incorporate/include physical activity advice in clinical consultations.
Physical activity has multiple different benefits for RMDs, including better quality of life, better fitness and sleep, less fatigue and pain while it can also reduce inflammation.…
Read more of this article
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is very much on my mind as I write this during RA Awareness Week. Yesterday I attended a roundtable discussing the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) and RA. Rheumatology doesn’t get a specific mention in the plan, but there is plenty of content on related issues. There is mention of chronic pain, for instance, which is very relevant to ARMA and to RA. Access to integrated pain services is something ARMA members have identified as a priority following the publication of our mental health report last month, and by the time this is published I will have presented at a meeting of the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition.…
Read more of this article
