TiMS newsletter issue 18


Conference Summary

As ever the annual MS Trust Conference was well attended and buzzing with energy and enthusiasm for face to face learning and real life networking. We were delighted to welcome over twenty new faces to the TiMS network meeting where we successfully employed a hybrid model to host both TiMS members at the conference and at home. 

The MS Trust Conference 2023 was held 26-28 March at the Leonardo Hotel and Conference Venue, Hinckley Island. We shared a varied and vibrant programme, covering patient and treatment journeys, living well with MS, professional development, practical sessions on treatment and therapy updates and lively debates.  

Working Group

As a network we are striving to improve the daily lives and care of people with MS by sharing best practice, ideas and enhancing skills. Supported by the MS Trust, it is our aim to support, strengthen and promote the role of therapists in the management of MS, and this Conference we were able to share some new resources the working group have been working on over the last year. Utilise these in your departments to help support and upskill anyone in the team working with people with MS.  

Supporting people to undertake a thorough but concise annual review has been a talking point for the network for some time. We now have a simple Annual Review Template you can use with suggestions of domains to consider each review. This is accompanied by the Annual Review guidance, which is a more detailed tool aiming to provide assessment domains and possible actions that can be taken. This can be used as a learning and development aid for more junior therapists or those with less experience in MS.
Please be aware that the TiMS Knowledge and Skills Framework  has been further simplified to make a more user friendly tool to use with therapists of all levels working with MS. We are also working a scoping document to define the role of the therapist across different aspects of the MS journey. 

Call for new Co-chair

We’ll be sad to see Michelle stepping down from the Co-Chair role later this year and will be voting in a new member of the Working Party to sit alongside Jody in this role. We would also love to welcome in some new Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language therapists and Dieticians to the group, to even out the balance - we need you!

Meet the working group.

TiMS respiratory issues and multiple sclerosis (MS) aid

The TiMS website is full of resources and now also offers the new Respiratory Consensus, put together based on literature and the vast experience of our respiratory working party. This document serves as an aide memoir of respiratory issues to be aware of when working with people with MS, and to encourage assessments that will minimise respiratory distress and hospital admissions. A simple and effective document for those of us who may not have worked in respiratory for a while!

This document serves as an aide memoir of respiratory issues to be aware of when working with people with MS, and to encourage assessments that will minimise respiratory distress and hospital admissions. A simple and effective document for those of us who may not have worked in respiratory for a while!

The document brings together a consensus of expert opinion and evidence-based research. The aim of the document is to be an aide-memoire to make us aware of respiratory issues in MS and to use a peak cough flow as part of an assessment in the community at all stages of the condition.

The ultimate aim is to improve the lives of people living with MS by optimising their respiratory function and minimise potential respiratory distress and hospital admissions caused by MS-related respiratory issues.

The TiMS respiratory consensus document.

Fatigue

Fatigue affects the vast majority of people we see, and is almost always part of our management. Prof Rona Moss-Morris (co-applicants include some TiMS members: Wendy Hendrie, Pam Bostock and Jenny Freeman) is leading a large research programme called REFUEL-MS, which aims to develop am app-based treatment which can be implemented within routine NHS care.

The first stage of this project is understanding current practice and identifying barriers and facilitators to integrating such an App into MS services. If you would like to get involved by sharing your experiences via an online interview or focus group, then please contact REFUEL-MS@kcl.a​c.uk as participants are currently being recruited for this phase of the project.  

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