Category: Patients

DWP Community partners programme

The Department for Work and Pensions is looking to second people with a professional or lived experience of musculoskeletal conditions to work on an exciting, new project. The Community Partners Programme is a new initiative working with Jobcentre colleagues to enhance our service to customers with disabilities and health conditions.

We are looking to second a colleague from a local organisation to be a Musculoskeletal Community Partner to work across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. We are looking to arrange secondments with organisations who would like their colleagues to gain valuable experience in a government department, and to share their specialist skills and knowledge to enhance the supported to Jobcentre colleagues with disabilities and health conditions.…

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RheumaBuddy App

NRAS have partnered with Daman, a Danish digital Healthcare company, to bring you RheumaBuddy.

The aim of the app is to create an overview of your Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) on a daily basis by discovering patterns and ultimately gaining a greater control of the condition. As well as creating a great overview, RheumaBuddy allows you to log sleep, exercise and hours of work or school. It is also possible to chat with other patients and learn from their experiences.…

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Spark innovation for the everyday challenges of arthritis

Recently, Arthritis Research UK has launched another round of Spark funding in collaboration with the Design Council. The Spark programme provides funding and support to UK-based innovators to develop products that will help tackle the everyday challenges that people with arthritis face, so improving their quality of life.

This exciting initiative aims to support the development of assistive products that help people living with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions to live well, to help people be independent and to be in control of their lives as much as possible.…

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Exercise venue preferences for ESCAPE-pain: We want your views

ESCAPE-pain is a 6 week rehabilitation programme for individuals with knee and hip osteoarthritis which aims to educate participants on their condition, self-management and coping strategies as well as exercise. The Health Innovation Network, the Academic Health Science Network, has been working hard for the past 3+ years to spread the adoption of ESCAPE-pain across the U.K, and recently, has been awarded a grant by Sport England as part of their ‘Active Ageing’ project to target inactive adults in particular and increase access to the programme.…

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Shaping the RA service in Scotland

In two new NRAS videos, our Scottish Ambassadors and Dr Neil McKay from the Scottish Society for Rheumatology, explain how RA patients living in Scotland can help shape improvements to their rheumatology services.

Patients who have had RA for a year or more, and live in Scotland, can fill out the questionnaires that will be available in your clinic. Information gathered will be analysed and used to identify areas of good practice that can be shared across the country.

Both videos can be viewed here.

Flare Rollercoaster workshop, Portsmouth

Arthritis and Connective Tissue Disease flares are normal but do have an impact on every aspect of your life. In simple terms a flare can be described as “a sudden increased severity in symptoms that can hit at any time”.

For many patients having a flare is disheartening, they feel that they have been managing their arthritis/connective tissue disease well and doing all the right things by taking their medication regularly and maintaining a healthy balance of exercise and activity, then one day they wake up and feel like it was all for nothing.…

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Get a grip on PIP

As an active member of the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), the Arthritis Research UK policy, campaigns and public affairs teams have worked closely with the Chairs of the coalition on the DBC’s new report. The report demonstrating the huge problems which many people experience when trying to access Personal Independence Payments, and includes statistics from the DBC Big Benefits Survey – with over 1500 responses specifically from people with musculoskeletal conditions- and an in depth case study provided by Arthritis Research UK about Debs, who had her PIP reduced and lost her Motability care as a result.…

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Rehab Matters – Raising the profile of community rehabilitation

Guest blog by Catherine Pope, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Chair.

Jane left hospital after a stroke and was seen promptly at home by a physiotherapist, who worked with other members of the multidisciplinary team to develop a plan for her recovery.

Members of that team visited regularly, and Jane made strong progress – supported by her husband, Robert – towards achieving her goal of getting back out into her garden and getting her green fingers dirty.

Meanwhile, another Jane, in another part of the country – perhaps even the neighbouring town – realised no such goal.…

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October is Lupus Awareness Month

We would like to remind everyone that October is Lupus Awareness Month. Throughout the month LUPUS UK will be sharing facts, videos, information and case studies on social media. We would be very grateful to any organisations that can spread the word about our #THISISLUPUS campaign and direct people towards the LUPUS UK website for more information or support.

Three LUPUS UK Factsheets Revised and Updated

Three factsheets have recently been revised and updated to meet the requirements of The Information Standard.

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A Guide to Rheumatology: Parliamentary briefing

In late September, BSR are releasing ‘A Guide to Rheumatology: Parliamentary briefing,’ which seeks to address the challenges and opportunities faced by the rheumatology multidisciplinary team and identify ways to improve the treatment and care received by individuals with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. It highlights the significant difficulties experienced by rheumatology services and the patients they serve: 

  • Waiting times: 38% of patients in England with suspected rheumatoid arthritis were assessed within three weeks of referral.
  • Diagnostic delay: Only 18% of patients in England were referred to rheumatology within the NICE recommended three days of presentation to their GP.
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