MS research: work and MS


10 January 2023

In this video, Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez talks about her innovative research project: preventing job loss in MS.

Do you ever feel anxious about having discussions with your colleagues or managers about MS? Maybe you’d like to request reasonable adjustments or reduce your hours, but you’re worried about how you’ll be perceived afterwards. We can safely say that you’re not alone in your worries.

Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez, University of Nottingham, has a background in psychology and she’s been working with people with MS for over seven years. Time after time, the topic of work with MS kept coming up in her research. She decided to dig a little deeper and began researching job retention in MS.

Preventing job loss study

Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez started developing a system that would help people with MS remain in work, find new employment or return to work. Her project focuses not only on people with MS, but also employers to support positive working relationships.

Now, Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez is extending her job retention research project into NHS services. The long-term thinking is that this support could one day be delivered by trained MS Nurses, GPs, or other health professionals.
 

The program focuses on helping people with lots of different work issues like managing symptoms, improving working relationships, disclosing the condition or discussing reasonable adjustments.
 

Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez

How the system works

In the program, an initial assessment helps the person with MS to set three work related goals, which could be anything from discussing reasonable adjustments to moving jobs. 

Over the next three months, participants are empowered and supported to achieve their goals with the help of the research team. Line managers or colleagues are also welcome to the discussions and support, if the person with MS would find it useful.

No two people with MS are the same. We want to get a good picture of who the person is, what barriers they have with work and what their long-term goals are.

Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez

Of course, if you’re struggling with difficult relationships at work, then you may not feel comfortable having a manager or colleague present with you in the program. Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez explains that in this case, the project would aim to empower a person living with MS to have those conversations in a positive way with their employer.  

At the end of the program, you reassess your work goals with the research team to see what might be supportive going forwards.

Having a person’s line manager involved helps them to understand their legal responsibilities and how difficulties at work can be overcome by making reasonable adjustments.

Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez

The future

Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez is a little over seven months into the two-year study, so it’s still early days for this project. However, we know that lots of people with MS need work support or leave employment earlier than they wanted to. So, we’re excited to learn more about Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez’s project and what it might mean for the MS community in the future.

Want to get involved?

The team is looking for people with MS to help with their research.

If you’d like to complete some work-related interviews with Dr Blanca De Dios Pérez, contact her: blanca.dediosperez@nottingham.ac.uk

Alternatively, send a private message on twitter to @BlancaDios 

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