Events for professionals

Find out about our upcoming events and webinars for MS professionals and view recordings of past events.

Exploring access to community neurorehabilitation

On Monday 3 March at 7pm we'll be hosting our first webinar of 2025 in our series focusing on neurorehabilitation. 

Our speakers, Shona Pryde and Owen Williams, will present the results of their recent award winning research, focusing on the challenges people with progressive neurological conditions in Northern Ireland face when accessing community neuro-rehabilitation. They'll also describe what good access looks like from the perspective of people living with a progressive neurological condition and discuss priorities for local service improvements and broader rehabilitation policy. There will also be an opportunity to pose questions about the research to our panel. 

The webinar is free to attend and is aimed at professionals working in health and social care, providing services to people with MS. 

Sign up for this webinar  

Previous Events

New FES Service in Northern Ireland

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is a treatment used to stimulate movement in weakened or paralysed muscles.

It's been proven to improve the lives of many people with MS, making walking easier and reducing the effects of foot drop. This allows people to take part in daily living and social activities, as well as feeling more confident and independent. The treatment's now available to eligible people living with MS in Northern Ireland.

This webinar gives an insight into what FES is and how the new FES service was developed. As well as how it operates in practice and the patient outcomes from the service. There's also a personal testimony from a person living with MS about using the FES device and the impact it's had on his life.

Watch the webinar on the new FES Service

Developing a case for change - Somerset Neuro rehabilitation service review  

On Wednesday 13 November we hosted a webinar about the Somerset Neuro-rehabilitation review.

Julie Jones is Programme Manager for Stroke and Neurorehabilitation for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. She gave an overview of how the review of neuro-rehabilitation services across Somerset has been conducted. She told us how the review team involved staff, patients and third sector partners in the review.

Julie talked through how the case for change document that persuaded the Intergrated Care Service (ICS) of the need for further work was developed and told us about the next steps.

Information about the review can be found on the Somerset ICS website

Watch the developing a case for change webinar on YouTube

Rapid Access to Neurology Assessment (RANA) Webinar

The Rapid Access to Neurology Assessment (RANA) service, developed by clinicians at The Walton Centre, provides patients with direct access to expert neurologists when they visit Emergency Departments with neurological signs and symptoms. RANA was introduced in February 2021 to support the system further as part of The Walton Centre’s mutual aid offer during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first two months, it saw 27 patients from Trusts across Cheshire and Merseyside, saving approximately 32 bed days.

The new assessment pathway was created by Dr Anita Krishnan, the Trust’s Clinical Director for Neurology. She said: “The vast majority of acute inpatient referral requests from our partner hospitals can be a range of common neurological disorders, from migraines and seizures to functional disorders and sensory disturbance. Before RANA, these patients would often be admitted and have to wait for a visiting neurologist, who would assess them and in most cases discharge them and agree next steps. I saw that we could improve this process and free up much needed beds in emergency departments across the region.

“Under RANA, patients who fit the criteria will now be referred immediately to The Walton Centre and receive the most appropriate care, from the most appropriate person, at the most appropriate time, without getting stuck in the wider healthcare system unnecessarily.”

We recently ran a webinar that will give you an insight into how the RANA service was developed, how it operates in practice and the patient outcomes from the service. Watch the RANA Webinar

Fampridine Awareness Webinar

In this webinar, Dr Marguerite Hill, Consultant Neurologist in MS at Morriston Hospital and Lynne Watson, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist at Morriston Hospital, share their knowledge and insight of prescribing fampridine and delivering extensive fampridine clinics.

The session includes:

  • sharing how the fampridine service was developed in Swansea Bay UHB
  • how the drug is administered
  • eligibility
  • benefits
  • side effects
  • patient outcomes

Martin Mitchell, who uses fampridine, also shares his experiences of taking the drug.

It will give you a good insight into the drug fampridine, also known as Fampyra. This treatment is particularly important for people who have progressive forms of MS. Fampridine has been proven to be effective in 40% of people who are clinically eligible for it and it can have a significant positive impact on their quality of life. It can speed up responders walking by approximately 25% and significantly enhance their mobility.

Watch the Fampridine awareness webinar

Cultural Awareness within Neuro rehabilitation

We collaborated with the Greater Manchester Neurorehabilitation and Stroke Integrated Delivery Network on long term conditions and treating culturally diverse patients. On Wednesday 13 December 2023, we held a webinar that included presentations from Dr Carol Sampson, (Neuropsychologist), Suki Wong, (Neuro Physiotherapist) and Joanna Rutkowska-Wheeldon (Neuro Occupational Therapist). 

They shared their practice and patient case studies of applying cultural awareness to improve outcomes.  These case studies highlighted the importance and value of cultural and value-based goal setting. It also explored how understanding these values can help shape neurorehabilitation services and improve patient care.  

  Watch the cultural awareness within neuro rehabilitation webinar on YouTube

Supporting patients with progressive MS on general wards

This webinar was led by Miranda Olding and Emma Matthews. They discussed a new pathway that can support faster and safer discharge from hospital wards.

The pathway was developed in collaboration with specialist MS nurses, ward staff and people with MS. It provides simple prompts for key action points that need addressing when caring for someone with progressive MS during their stay. Such as continence, spasticity, dehydration and infection.

Watch the pathway webinar on YouTube

Delivering cognitive screening and rehabilitation within MS pathways

This webinar focused on the application of psychological and neuropsychological science to better understand and treat psychological issues related to neurological conditions. It also covered how cognitive screening and rehabilitation can be delivered remotely by mobile phones or online platforms (like Microsoft Teams). And provided an overview of:

  • what kind of cognitive screening can be done within your clinic
  • the evidence of the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation
  • how you and your team can offer some support towards cognitive rehabilitation.

We are grateful to Professor Roshan das Nair of University of Nottingham (UK) and SINTEF (Norway), and Lauren Taylor, PhD Student Clinical Psychology for leading the webinar and sharing their research findings.

Watch the Cognitive Screening webinar on YouTube

MS Bladder and Bowel Pathway

We know neurological bladder and bowel dysfunction has wide-ranging negative impacts on the quality of life for people living with MS.

In this webinar, a range of expert speakers included Sue Thomas, who chaired the group that updated the Consensus guidelines. They shared the work that they have been involved with in developing and implementing the MS Bladder and Bowel pathway. As well as some examples of specific continence services across the UK.

Watch the Bladder and Bowel Pathway webinar on YouTube

There was also an opportunity to pose your questions about the pathway and its implementation to our panel. Below is a summary of the questions that were asked and the responses.

Read the summary of questions and answers from the webinar (PDF, 859KB)

Co-designing NeuroResponse – digital, speedy UTI assessment and treatment at your fingertips

NeuroResponse is a service that allows people with MS in north and central London to get quick and easy 24/7 access to clinicians at NHS 111 to aid early detection of urinary tract infections. This helps reduce the need for GP appointments and unnecessary hospital attendances.

Many people living with MS experience urinary tract infections. But getting appropriate advice and treatment can be a challenge. In this webinar we shared how an MS community came together to co-design NeuroResponse, which provides timely assessment and treatment. 

We discussed the principles of co-design, the barriers and enablers of innovation in the NHS, and explored experiences to see how 'people power' can transform care delivery. You’ll also find out how to access this innovative service in the recording.

Watch the NeuroResponse webinar on YouTube

Developing an integrated care model for people with long-term neurological conditions

Wednesday 6 November - 7 - 8:15pm

In this webinar, Sandra Bartolomeu Pires will share her PhD research findings.

Sandra wants to develop an intervention that improves joined-up care for families living with Huntington’s disease. Identifying what works well (to avoid reinventing the wheel), but also identifying which are the obstacles to change, and how to overcome them. This will lead to a model suited for the "real world".

Much of Sandra’s research is transferable to other long-term neurological conditions. And this is where the true potential lies because the gaps that she's trying to fix aren't Huntington’s disease specific, they're system specific. Her goal is to build bridges across different conditions and reflect on how we can move forward together.

The session will include some time for discussion with the attendees about Sandra’s research findings. And identifying ways in which we can develop more integrated models of care.

Sign up to the webinar on Eventbrite

Continence Care in neurology webinar

Wednesday 20 November - 7 - 8:30pm

In May 2023, we ran a webinar looking at:

  • the development and implementation of the MS consensus bladder and bowel pathway.

  • some examples of specific continence services across the UK. 

We wanted to revisit the topic, 18 months on. Following-up on progress towards adoption of the pathway and other developments in continence care for people with long-term neurological conditions.

In this webinar, we have a range of expert speakers who'll share progress on the work they've been involved with. And some of the challenges that exist in addressing this important area of health.

There'll also be an opportunity to pose your questions to our panel. 

Sign up to the webinar on Eventbrite