Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
Influencing policy and care together for best lifelong musculoskeletal health
NRAS local groups are a wonderful place to share knowledge, enjoy engaging events and find friendship with others who know what living with rheumatoid arthritis is like. By joining an NRAS local group, people can find support, enjoy activities and learn from expert speakers.
For more information on upcoming local events, visit the event page on nras.org.uk.
For more information on NRAS Local Groups and NRAS JoinTogether online groups, please visit the NRAS Connect with others page.
The Welsh Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee has published its report Supporting people with chronic conditions.
The report makes a number of urgent recommendations to the Welsh Government to ensure that people currently living with chronic conditions are being properly supported and are receiving the services they need to manage their care.
You can read ARMA’s evidence to the Committee here.
You can read the full report here.
A new e-learning resource available to all healthcare professionals working across roles and sectors in Wales entitled “Managing Persistent Pain”. It has been by launched by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW).
This package has been developed in collaboration by HEIW, primary care representatives and pharmacy colleagues together with the National Clinical Lead for Persistent Pain. The resource has been developed to encourage healthcare professionals to think more broadly about the management persistent pain rather than focusing on medication and interventions.…
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The Welsh Government has opened a public consultation on its draft Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
The consultation will close on 11 June 2024.
You can find full details of the consultation via this link to the www.gov.wales website.
The Senedd Health Committee is holding an enquiry into the ‘prevention of ill health – obesity.’
The call for evidence runs until 7 June 2024.
You can find further details on the inquiry and submit evidence to the Committee by following this link.
The Welsh Government has opened a consultation on the draft guidance document, Living with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions: a framework for the future.
The new framework is one of several tools that will guide service development and delivery for MSK conditions from 2024 to 2028.
The consultation is seeking views to shape the vision, mission and strategy for improving services for people with MSK conditions in Wales and is open for responses until 8th April 2024.
Visit the consultation website for more information or to submit a response.
The quality statement describes what good quality musculoskeletal health services should look like.
First published: 12 October 2023
Last updated: 12 October 2023
The Wales MSK Conference took place in Cardiff on World Arthritis Day, 12 October 2023. ARMA CEO Sue Brown presented alongside the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Frank Atherton and the Health Minister, Eluned Morganon.
The Minister and the CMO delivered speeches covering the scale of the challenge in terms of the number of people living with MSK in Wales – nearly a million – as well as the impact of the conditions on quality of life; both spoke about the importance of primary and secondary prevention regarding MSK.…
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Pain Concern is promoting the latest edition of their Airing Pain podcast: Airing Pain #139 Living With Persistent Pain in Wales.
It was recorded at the Living Well with Persistent Pain in Wales conference during Pain Awareness Month in September 2023. The topic of the conference was the launch of the refreshed persistent pain guidance first published in 2019.
We know that persistent and chronic pain conditions affect a significant proportion of our population. It’s estimated between 33% and 50% of the population suffer with some form of persistent pain.…
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Newport Live has become the first leisure provider in Wales to deliver the Good Boost programme to help people with musculoskeletal conditions be more active and sociable.
The programme follows funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of the Healthy Ageing Challenge. Newport Live is taking a leading role in a two-year research project examining how leisure centres & facilities may be transformed into musculoskeletal (MSK) hubs within the community.
The charitable trust will be the leisure provider in charge of delivering sessions that seek to improve people’s lives by getting them moving with gentle water and land-based exercise in a fun and social environment.…
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The National Workforce Implementation Plan outlines a series of practical actions that will act as enablers to accelerate the ten-year Workforce Strategy published in 2020. The Plan highlights a number of actions that need to progress immediately to address some of the most urgent pressures within the NHS now. Plans for specific professions and services like nursing, dentistry, or pharmacy will be published over the next two years.
Read the National workforce implementation plan on the www.gov.wales website.
