TiMS newsletter issue 20

TiMS and the UKMSSNA held a joint meeting on the 29th September 2023 which focused on collaboration. Facilitated by the MS Trust this gave a key opportunity for collaboration to benefit the wider MS community.

At our latest TiMS meeting we have had to vote in a new co-chair, and while we are very excited about this we would like to take a moment to thank Michelle Davies for all of her hard work over the years. Michelle was voted in as co-chair in 2019 and has helped to steer the group through some tough times over Covid.

She has helped to produce the TiMS annual review template and the respiratory aid, during her time as co-chair TiMS also produced the TiMS competencies. We look forward to her continued involvement in the working group, and wish her well in all of her future endeavours. 

With Michelle stepping down there was a lot of deliberation about who would be able to fill her shoes. We would like to announce that Susan Hourihan is the new co-chair of TiMS alongside Jody Barber. Susan is an experienced OT who has been a member of TiMS for many years. We look forward to Susan’s leadership and seeing what the future holds for TiMS.

We met at our recent face to face quarterly TIMS working group meeting to discuss our plan for development of this new project group. We welcomed Heather to our group who was participating virtually.  

 After much discussion, the group's project focus was agreed as:
"The added value of Specialist AHP MS care"

The group had discussed this project in the past and were very aware that there have been numerous projects and publications with a similar theme to this in the past which we do not want to replicate. One of the current projects underway in this area includes the "transforming MS For all" project led by Dr Jeremy Hobart.  

We discussed that the value of specialist MS Teams include:

1. Proactive vs reactive care.

2. Care focussed on the needs of the person with MS.

3. Co-designing care pathways with the users of the services.

4. Prevention of admission; reduction of secondary complications; living well; emotional wellbeing.

5. Sustainable work forces.

The aim of our project will be to look at defining the value of our intervention incorporating: the evidence for our intervention, patient voice, cost benefits in terms of both society and the individual.

We have set some key areas to investigate prior to our next meeting where we will discuss further and refine to project area accordingly.  

The other project group has taken on the subject of Exercise and MS...

We recognise there is much evidence and advice out there regarding exercise and MS, so spent some time looking at what information would be most useful to patients, professionals and others that would benefit people nationally.

Laura had sent around some recent research for us to read for our home work. So it was discussed along with the questions, 'What is our problem?' and 'Who are we targeting with the information/solutions?' and 'How will it be delivered?'

We considered if this was going to be for physio's, HCP's, exercise instructors or pwMS.

Do we know all the barriers to exercise? How are we going to categorise our information/advice/ideas/suggestions? Would this be symptom management and exercise, advising what equipment should be available to pwMS, funding opportunities, self-management or information/booklets?

Terminology and health literacy was discussed along with potentially mapping local groups and what other conditions we could learn from.

With all this talk it was decided a co-production day/focus groups/information gathering in various formats should be the way forward, so we are going to start here to help us develop something useful around MS and exercise.  

If you have any thoughts or ideas, do e-mail us about it too!

The MS Trust Conference is coming 17 - 19 March 2024 at Hinckley Island.

Early Bird Sign Up - closes November 30 2023!

Sign up early to pose questions to the speakers and help to shape the content of sessions. The Poster Competition entry closes 26 January 2024. We can’t wait to see you all there!

Use code: TIMS80
For a discounted place. These are first come first served and only have 40 places left. 

Sign up to the MS Trust conference.

We are currently recruiting for more OTs, Dietitians and Speech and Language Therapists to join our working group! We meet 4 times a year, with one of those meetings being face to face. If you would be interested in joining the working group, please contact therapistsinms@​mstrust.org.uk with your CV.

We need your help. At the MS Trust,  we’re looking to improve our exercise resources for people living with MS. We want to hear from the MS community so that we can better meet their needs. We would be delighted if you could share this survey with your MS patients.

Share this link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/exerciseMST

Thank you for your help.

We are conducting research at the University of Nottingham, and need your help to explore how health professionals view their role in addressing the issue of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) when caring for people with MS.

We want to talk to a range of professionals across the whole of the UK about this issue and get your views and perspectives on how you see your role and what experiences and/or training you may or may not have had. 

We would like to interview:

- specialist MS-Nurses, MS-Therapists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Bladder and Bowel Specialists, and other health professionals who work closely with people with MS

- professionals working across the four nations, in all healthcare settings and also charitable organisations.

The interviews would be:

- approximately 30 minutes long, informal and over Teams or telephone, at a time to suit you.

More information can be found at https://bit.ly/3ExoRFf and in the short summary below. 

Please contact suzanne.britt1@​nottingham.ac.u​k to take part, call 07807429523 or leave contact details at https://forms.office.com/e/RA0AWaYtzb to register your interest.

Thank you for taking the time to consider taking part in this important study.

If you have a question about any aspect of managing MS, contact the working group and we will do our very best to answer it.

If you would like more information about TiMS, the Working Group and to see the work we have done to date, click on TiMS  in the Health Professions section on the MS Trust website.