Garreth | Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance

BackCare’s calendar of events for 2016/2017

National BackCare Awareness Week
3^rd – 7^th October 2016
‘Caring for Carers’

BackCare is working to help the UK’s carers with this year’s BackCare Awareness week.
For information about the event and how to order your BackCare Awareness Week pack,
please visit: http://www.backcare.org.uk/news/caring-carers-backcare-awareness-week/

The BackCare Christmas Carol Concert
12^th December 2016
The Queen’s Chapel, 6:30pm

Queen’s chapel of the Savoy, Savoy Hill, Strand, London, WC2A 0DA
Tickets £18; donations for refreshments welcome.

To pre-order tickets please call 020 8977 5474
or visit http://www.backcaretrading.org.uk/…

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World Health Organisation landmark action plan will tackle tidal wave of musculoskeletal conditions

The Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance, an alliance of prominent health charities, professional and research bodies, today [Thursday 15^th September 2016] welcomed a ground-breaking World Health Organisation action plan to tackle a tidal wave of musculoskeletal conditions in Europe ^[1]. The Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases in the WHO European Region, which was approved by WHO Europe’s Regional Committee today, includes specific priority actions by all European countries to stem the rise in musculoskeletal conditions and to improve overall health.…

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Guest Blog: How can we support people working and managing MSDs?

by Rob Yeldham, Director of Strategy, Policy & Engagement for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

Musculoskeletal disorders are the largest cause of disability in the UK. Some conditions may be caused by, or exasperated by, work. Others are not work related but impact on the ability of people to work. Only around six in ten working age people with an MSK are in work. Many people with arthritis are hiding their condition at work for fear of their employer’s reaction. So how can we support people working and managing MSDs?…

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We need to be speaking the language of decision-makers and commissioners

Whether at the individual, organisational or indeed national level, when we scan the horizon in front of us and try to set out the path ahead for ourselves, it is occasionally useful also to look back at where we have come from.

ARMA began life in 1972 as the British League Against Rheumatism, and in 1996 changed its name to what it is today. With time, our membership expanded and grew to include a broad range of organisations, both professional and patient-led, including the British Orthopaedic Association, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Arthritis Research UK and the National Osteoporosis Society – in addition to long-standing members such as the British Society for Rheumatology, Arthritis Care and NRAS.…

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Transforming care for people with MSK conditions

by Dr Jill Firth, BHPR President, Consultant Nurse in Rheumatology and Director for Service Improvement at the Pennine Musculoskeletal Partnership Ltd in Oldham.

Over the past 20 years of working as a special ist nurse, I have witnessed first-hand the changing face of care for people with Musculoskeletal conditions (MSK) – particularly Rheumatoid Arthritis – leading to better outcomes for patients.

This can, in part, be attributed to advances in treatment strategies, including biologic therapies, but is also a consequence of better access to care provided by a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) comprising consultant rheumatologists, specialist nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and podiatrists as a core nucleus.…

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CEO update July 2016

ARMA started July on all cylinders, with our AGM on the 4^th of July and the election of four new Trustees to the ARMA Board, whose details are now on our Governance webpage. We were also delighted to have Dr. Martin McShane as our guest speaker this year. Martin, who is now Director of Medical Clinical Operations at Optum, is well-known to us from his previous role as Director for Long-Term Conditions NHS England: among other things, he gave the 2013 ARMA Annual Lecture, spoke at the 2014 MSK World Summit and also published a great blog on MSK ahead of our national seminar in January this year.…

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Guest Blog: RightCare and MSK: increasing value and reducing variation

by Professor Matthew Cripps, National Director of NHS RightCare

It’s now six months since NHS RightCare was launched nationally. This involved 65 local health economies (‘wave one’) receiving support and facilitation to embed the approach, and we’re still growing as a programme to roll out to the 144 remaining health economies in England at the end of 2016.

Things are progressing at pace with the first 65, we’re at the exciting point now where CCGs have confirmed their big opportunities for improvement, taking Commissioning for Value insight as their starting point.…

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For the NHS, multidisciplinary working is the way forward

It’s hard to describe a month like the one we’ve just had, which has been characterised by many positive things for our community, but overshadowed by external events. Like me, many of you will feel worried and dismayed at the result of the EU referendum. There is no denying that whatever the practical implications of it – politically, for the NHS, for our respective areas of work – and whatever actually ends up happening at the end of what could well turn out to be a long and winding road, this result casts tremendous uncertainty over the UK, and Europe, in many different ways and for some time to come.…

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Guest Blog: All hands on deck to tackle rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases

by Dr Peter Lanyon, Consultant Rheumatologist, Nottingham University Hospital;
President, British Society for Rheumatology

Two months ago, at our annual national conference on the banks of the Clyde, it was a privilege to start my elected term of office as President of the British Society for Rheumatology. And I’m very excited to be serving BSR in this role. Our members are front-line clinicians, nurses and allied health professionals working across the health community. Every day, and sometimes 24/7, they deliver care to try and improve the lives of people living with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.…

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Summary of the Fibromyalgia event in the Parliament

On the 11^th May 2016, a Fibromyalgia Awareness event took place in Parliament, hosted by Andrea Jenkyns MP, and organised by Fibromyalgia Action UK (FMA UK).

The event was well attended by MPs, researchers, healthcare professionals, students and people living with fibromyalgia, their families and carers. There will be some exciting outcomes of this event resulting in greater collaboration of different stakeholders in the fibromyalgia field: patient organisations, healthcare professionals, researchers and policy makers.

During the event Dr Toby Garrood, a consultant from the Guy’s Hospital fibromyalgia clinic, gave an overview of the award-winning and excellent fibromyalgia multidisciplinary service, which can act as a role model to be replicated easily and for low-cost in rheumatology departments of hospitals across the country.…

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