Arthritis News & Musculoskeletal News from ARMA's Members

HMSA – Coronavirus Shielding: Advice for re-joining the world

This blog post from the HMSA’s Occupational Therapist, Jo Southall, provides an overview of strategies to deal with the not entirely comfortable idea of returning to an uncertain world when you’ve been shielding for some time, and is packed with ideas about how to ease that transition.

Jo is responsible for team wellbeing at the HMSA and also runs a monthly #HMSALiveOT show from the HMSA Facebook page at 7pm on the third Thursday of each month, taking your Occupational Therapy questions live or in advance.…

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Conference speakers

Thinking Differently for MSK Health

Speakers

Andrew Bennett

National Clinical Director MSK, NHS England

The role of the ICS and Place
in MSK service improvement
– National perspective slides

Andrew is National Clinical Director for Musculoskeletal Conditions for NHS England and Improvement, and a Consultant Physiotherapist at Sutton Health and Care Alliance, Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust. He qualified in 2000 in Leeds, completing specialty training across London as well as a PGcert, PGdip and MSc.…

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MSK leading the way

by Sue Brown, CEO, ARMA

It’s been fantastic over the last few months to work with ARMA members to rise to the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic. We now have to rise to a new challenge – resetting MSK services to be more personalised and to use shared decision making to ensure people receive the right treatment efficiently and effectively. ARMA’s vision for MSK and that discussed at the NHS England MSK leadership meetings are remarkably similar. Making that vision a reality will take the combined effort of all of us.…

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PCRMM 2020 Conference online

The PCRMM annual conference will be running again this year, 12-13 November.

We have been through unprecedented times over the past few months, and this year the conference will be held online. The PCRMM Society is determined not let to these extraordinary times affect the content of the conference which is promising to be as interesting and engaging as ever.

This year, the conference will have an FCP stream to encourage and strengthen the role of FCPs within primary care. There will also be fascinating lectures on pain management, osteoporosis, podiatry and spondyloarthritis amongst others, and the PCRMM Society looks forward to extending a welcome to more of you on this new interactive platform.…

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ARMA Supporter scheme

We know that many people value our newsletter, webinars and the fact that we provide a voice for MSK health. We are increasingly asked: given that our membership is made up of organisations, how can an individual support ARMA? For this reason, we have set up a new supporter scheme.

Full details can be found on our Become an ARMA Supporter page.

Women and young people hit hardest by lockdown

Study suggests women and young people have been hardest hit psychologically by coronavirus lockdown

A new study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, has looked at the potential impact of the coronavirus pandemic on population mental health.

It found that there was an overall increase in mental distress in people aged 16 years and older in the UK.
This did not affect all groups equally, with some subgroups showing marked increases. Factors most strongly linked with mental health deterioration were those associated with pre-existing health inequalities, such as gender and age.

…

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Guest blog: the Change Challenge Collaborative

by Greta McLachlan, Fellow at the Strategic planning and development cell, NHS England and Improvement, part of the Change Challenge Collaborative.

The change challenge collaborative is a group of professionals who have come together to work across the MSK, orthopaedic and rheumatology specialties to try and capture beneficial changes that have occurred within the NHS during COVID- 19. The aim being to try and capture these changes and ideas to ensure that these innovations are not lost when the NHS comes out of its pandemic measures.…

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Gold Standard Time to Diagnosis

Help end the 8.5-year delay in the diagnosis of axial SpA (AS)

A new programme that aims to end the 8.5-year delay to diagnosis for people living with axial Spondyloarthritis (axial SpA) was launched on 15 July 2020.

Gold Standard Time to Diagnosis will set the world’s first Gold Standard to reduce the average time to diagnosis in axial SpA (AS) to just one year. The consultation process, which is phase one of the programme, was launched at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on axial Spondyloarthritis.…

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Launch of brand new JIA-at-NRAS website

Since 2019, NRAS has been working hard on improving information provision to members, supporters and the wider Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) community.

The latest publications, updates and activities for JIA-at-NRAS represent a huge support resource for those who need it. A priority for NRAS – and an expectation from those they support – is an easy-to-navigate, user friendly, informational website, because this is the primary route for people to discover the organisation.

NRAS is excited to launch the new and improved JIA-at-NRAS website!…

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RA Awareness Week: 7-13 September 2020

With RAAW 2020, NRAS aims to educate and inform the public about exactly what rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is and how it impacts those living with the condition. This year, and taking into account recent events, the focus will be on ‘Mental Wellbeing’ and the ways in which you can improve your mental health and wellbeing.

Some areas of focus will be: learning new skills, connecting with people, being more physically active, mindfulness, giving and kindness. Throughout the week NRAS will also share some personal stories, raise awareness, and fundraise to support those living with RA. …

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