Arthritis News | ARMA

Introducing the new Young Voices panel

In May last year, NRAS began recruiting young people to a special advisory board to act as the voice of young people living with JIA and RA. The aim was for the board to help inform NRAS on how to develop their services for teenagers, young adults, and parents of children with JIA.

They are an inspirational group of young people and even through the difficult times of living with JIA and RA they have all learnt how to thrive. At the first meeting in June, they decided to name themselves the “Young Voices” to reflect their role in raising awareness of the issues affecting young people living with these chronic conditions. …

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NRAS launch a brand new website

NRAS is very excited to announce their brand new website has gone live. A lot of work has gone into development, implementation and design, ensuring an improvement in how NRAS provides information to their members, supporters and the wider rheumatoid arthritis (RA) community.

The latest NRAS publications, updates and activities can be a huge support 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. This is the way the Society is found by most people.…

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FSEM Statement on Long Covid clinics

The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (UK) has published a statement on the role SEM consultants can play in new NHS long Covid rehabilitation clinics being set up in England.

Read the statement here.

Sport and Exercise as the Elixir of Life: A webinar with Sir Muir Gray

Recently, FSEM (UK) and the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine presented an inspiration seminar by Sir Muir Gray on the importance of physical activity.

You can watch the webinar on demand here.

NOA moves forward with OQICAN

The National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) is moving forward with plans to create an Orthopaedic Quality Improvement (inc. Clinical Audit) Network. The new network will enable specialist orthopaedic centres to be connected as a primary source of support and expertise in all aspects of quality improvement and clinical audit for orthopaedics. It is being led and coordinated by the NOA as part of its remit to bring together orthopaedic centres around the UK to share best practice and address shared challenges.

The NOA welcomes webinar programme lead

Mr Cormac Kelly, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) founder member organisation, The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, has joined the NOA as Webinar Programme Lead. Since April 2020, Mr Kelly has played an instrumental role in the delivery of NOA’s COVID-19 webinar series, which continues to provide topical virtual sessions to support NOA members and those across the wider orthopaedic network.

COVID-19 and older people

The Centre for Ageing Better and The Physiological Society have produced a report: A National COVID-19 Resilience Programme.

The report says that home confinement in older people may cause: (i) cardio respiratory and metabolic deconditioning, (ii) insulin resistance, (iii) muscle loss and (iv) increased fat mass. In addition, social isolation may be worsened.

The report makes recommendations including a tailored exercise programme and broad interventions to support increased activity levels; optimising nutrition and embedding behaviour change.

Read the report here [opens in PDF]

Guest blog: A rollercoaster year in MSK

by Andrew Bennett, National Clinical Director for Musculoskeletal Conditions NHS England and NHS Improvement

It’s been a year since I was fortunate to attend the annual ARMA lecture at the canal museum in London and enjoyed a fantastic talk by Brendan Stubbs about physical activity and mental health. New to the role of National Clinical Director for MSK, this was the first time I met Sue Brown the CEO of ARMA, as well as number of other colleagues from the MSK world.…

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FCP pilot publishes results

First oF project reaches a successful conclusion

The First Contact Practitioner Osteopath pilot, funded by the Osteopathic Foundation, has published its results with excellent implications for the future of osteopaths in the FCP role.

The report indicates results that demonstrate osteopaths have the skills to make a positive impact in these roles.

Understanding shielding – a briefing for clinicians

The information in this briefing is based on the collated experiences of many of those shielding and information from patient helplines about the enquiries they were receiving earlier this year. For more information about the experiences of people with MSK conditions during lockdown, please see the report ‘MSK Lived Experience Themes of What Matters.’

Earlier this year, over 2 million people including some with musculoskeletal conditions, received a letter advising them to “shield” by remaining in their homes for 12 weeks.…

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Video: the Right Start Service for RA patients

NRAS has a new video on the benefits of the Right Start Service for patients newly or recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

New2RA Right Start is a service launched by the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) at the BSR 2019 congress and to which many rheumatology services are referring their patients. Right Start supports people newly diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis to understand their diagnosis and how it is likely to affect them. Getting the right, supportive start can help people to make adjustments to their behaviour, lifestyle and health beliefs and understand why self-management is essential, and learn how to make those important first steps to managing their disease effectively.…

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