Category: Press Coverage

ROS Better Bones campaign update

The Royal Osteoporosis Society would like to extend a huge thank you to all their colleagues across ARMA who helped advocate for universal, quality Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) in the build up to the Spring Budget.

Naturally, the ROS was disappointed that the Chancellor missed a golden opportunity in the Budget to launch a Transformation Fund for FLS. However, they will continue making the case with the Sunday Express, whose Better Bones campaign has driven a huge increase in public awareness of what’s at stake.…

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Walk Yourself Happy

Royal College of Podiatry MSK lead, Dr Helen Branthwaite has contributed a chapter on foot health and wellbeing for Julia Bradbury’s newest book on walking: ‘Walk Yourself Happy.’

Poor MSK health affecting the feet and the lower limb impacts around 30% of the UK population, and not being able to walk has a wider impact on wellbeing. This book covers all areas of wellbeing including, nutrition, sleep and mental health with foot care, footwear choice and foot strength playing a major role in walking yourself happy.

Making support for people in pain a reality

Media coverage of MSK conditions and pain is rare. Good coverage even more uncommon. So it was great to see the BBC focus on chronic pain on 11 May. A week earlier, coverage of the NICE draft guidelines on managing arthritis generated headlines such as “Exercise instead of taking painkillers, arthritis sufferers told.” Unsurprisingly this resulted in outcry from those who rely on pain medication to manage their arthritis, especially those who really need surgery but are on unacceptably long waiting lists after the pandemic.…

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Freehab in the British Journal of Sports Medicine

Freehab has recently been featured as a ‘service spotlight’ in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The article explains the need for Freehab’s inception and aims to inspire others to adopt social enterprise models as a means of creating equitable services. You are welcome to email info@freehab.co.uk if you have difficulties accessing the article. 

Freehab is a UK-based social enterprise that provides free access to advice, support and rehabilitation for MSK conditions. As a social enterprise, the business objective is not profit driven but, rather, focused on the achievement of its mission and vision; with any profits being reinvested towards the fulfilment of that goal.…

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Ailsa Bosworth on the EULAR PARE Podcast

EULAR bannerNRAS’s National Patient Champion, Ailsa Bosworth MBE, talks about SMILE-RA on the EULAR PARE podcast. SMILE-RA is a self-management e-learning programme for people with rheumatoid arthritis, a programme which was one of the winners of the Best Practice Fair at the EULAR PARE Conference.

You can listen to the episode, “Meet a PARE Best Practice Fair winner – NRAS” of the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and also find the EULAR PARE Podcast on Spotify.

Panorama NHS: Wait or Pay

The number of people waiting for hospital treatment in England has hit a record high of 5.61 million, as the NHS struggles to clear the growing backlog of cases caused by COVID-19. In a BBC Panorama programme on 27 September, Victoria Derbyshire met some of those on the waiting list and heard about the profound effects it is having on their lives.

Watch the programme

 

BASRaT edited BJSM issue

July’s edition of British Journal of Sports Medicine is edited by BASRAT Chief Executive, Steve Aspinall and references ARMA

BJSM’s July issue is an invaluable read.  Edited by BASRaT Chief Executive, Steve Aspinall, Steve focusses on both treating the patient in front of you and the power of language: integrating research into effective clinical practice.

“In a year of great turmoil and hardship for the vast majority of society, it has also been a time for organisations, professional associations and healthcare bodies to come together, working to bring about positive change and give everybody, regardless of who or where they are, the right to rehabilitation.…

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‘Arthritis and You’ Guardian article

On 30 September the Guardian published a pull-out on ‘Arthritis and You’, featuring a number of ARMA members and important topics, including: living with arthritis, why pain is important, why speed is of the essence for inflammatory arthritis diagnosis, how children get arthritis too, what you can do while waiting for joint replacement surgery, and an appeal that rheumatoid arthritis patients must not be left to struggle alone.

See the Health Awareness articles in full here, in particular, ‘Why Pain is Important‘ by Sue Brown, ARMA CEO.

Physical Activity publications

Readers of this newsletter will all be aware that physical activity is essential for musculoskeletal health. Every month we seem to report new publications on the subject. This month is no exception: two recent publications highlight the challenges and propose some solutions.

Researchers have studied adolescents’ activity levels in 146 countries and found that more than 80% are not meeting the recommended levels of activity. In the UK in 2016, more than 85% of girls were not active enough, and neither were almost 75% of boys.…

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