Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
Influencing policy and care together for best lifelong musculoskeletal health
Corresponding to ARMA’s Construction Roundtable and the report we published at the end of May, the British Dieticians’ Association would like to direct those interested to their BDA Work Ready programme, which is aimed at all employers, including the construction industry: www.bdaworkready.co.uk.
In the run up to the publication of the Government’s Green Paper on prevention, the IPPR has published a report Ending the blame game: The case for a new approach to public health and prevention. The UK has made significant progress on prevention in the past, IPPR says, but we appear to have ‘hit a wall’ with limited progress since 2010. They call for the government’s prevention green paper to deliver a paradigm shift in policy from interventions that ‘blame and punish’ to those that ‘empathise and assist’.…
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One major criticism of the NHS Long Term Plan was the lack of any detail on workforce. This detail has begun to emerge with the publication of the Interim People Plan for the NHS. It looks at the need to transform the way the entire workforce, including doctors, nurses, allied health professionals (AHPs), pharmacists, healthcare scientists, dentists, non-clinical professions, social workers in the NHS, commissioners, non-executives and volunteers, work together. It works on the basis that multi-professional clinical teams will be the foundation of the future workforce, rather than treating the workforce as a group of separate professions.…
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Public Health England has published two documents related to MSK prevention. The first is a whole-system strategic framework for prevention of musculoskeletal conditions across the life-course. The purpose is to provide stakeholders and system collaborators with a clear statement of PHE, NHS England and Versus Arthritis’ commitments to promote MSK health and to prevent MSK conditions. Each collaborating organisation, including ARMA, has identified what they will be contributing, and in some cases, leading on.
The document contains information about a range of MSK prevention activities and links to resources and tools to help prevention activity.…
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The PCRS is delighted to announce that, with immediate effect, the society’s name will change to the PRIMARY CARE RHEUMATOLOGY AND MUSCULOSKELETAL MEDICINE SOCIETY.
The name change is to more clearly represent who and what the organisation has become. The aims of the Society remain unchanged, with the main focus being education within primary care to increase the knowledge and understanding of rheumatological and general musculoskeletal issues, thereby improving management and patient outcomes.
The application window for the Aspiring to Excellence award programme is nearing its end, with a deadline of 31 July. The programme is a strategic partnership between NASS, BRITSpA and sponsoring companies AbbVie, Novartis and UCB, designed to encourage and recognise service improvement in axial SpA (AS) care.
Visit the NASS website for details on how to apply. For further information please contact annamcgilvray@nass.co.uk.
by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA
I write this reflecting on my day yesterday, which was unexpectedly dominated by discussions on pain. Pain is, of course, something we all talk about a fair bit in the MSK health world, as it’s one of the shared factors that cuts across all MSK conditions. I’m increasingly realising it is something we don’t always deal with particularly well.
My day yesterday began with reading New Scientist on the train, including an article about UK doctors’ concerns that we will follow the US into an opioid crisis.…
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NASS was delighted to launch the NASS Allies referral template, in conjunction with the Institute of Osteopathy and Royal College of Chiropractors, at the Primary Care and Public Health Conference on 15 and 16 May. The template was developed to help chiropractors and osteopaths in recommending referral for patients with suspected inflammatory back pain to rheumatology.
The template has been endorsed by the Royal College of GPs and Chartered Society for Physiotherapy. NASS is grateful to both the Institute of Osteopathy and Royal College of Chiropractors for their continued collaboration and wonderfully patient-centred approach.…
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Guest blog by Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy, President of the Association of Directors of Public Health
To its great credit, New Zealand has become the first country in the world to produce a “wellbeing budget” – a commitment to prioritise population wellbeing as the main mission of the government. A similar philosophy was adopted in Wales in 2015, with the Well-being of Future Generations Act requiring public bodies to think about the long-term impact of their policies on both people and places.…
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On 8 May, Versus Arthritis published a new policy report looking at the impact of home aids and adaptations for people with arthritis, and the barriers that people face when trying to access them. Read the full report here, which includes powerful stories from people with arthritis who benefit from aids and adaptations.
We found that aids and adaptations – from perching stools and grabbing tools, to grab rails and stair lifts – can help people with arthritis, and related conditions such as back pain, achieve a better quality of life and maintain their independence in the home.…
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