FND Hope UK were invited to attend the Mental Health and Neurosciences Leaders away day in June 2019. We were asked to take an active role in facilitating a breakout discussion alongside Professor Mark Edwards on:
- What would good look like in terms of meeting the emotional, cognitive and mental health needs of people with Functional Neurological Disorder
- What (if any) are the biggest challenges to achieving question 1, and how could they be overcome?
The breakout session was really encouraging, and we determined the following
Group 1.
Functional Neurological Disorders Context: Functional neurological disorders (FND) are common. They are often co-morbid with other neurological and psychiatric conditions and presentations are highly heterogeneous with a range of severity. One of the greatest challenges is the provision of equitable access to early interventions across the UK. There is stigma associated with FND both within the general population and amongst health professionals.
Key actions:
- Initial effective diagnostic explanations from neurologists acceptable to individual patients with details of the role of physiotherapy and psychological treatment.
- Patient triaged in to correct treatment pathway as early as possible with support to upskill GP
- Education regarding FND for primary care professionals
- Regional neuroscience centres create pathway and create business case
The full extent of the report can be found on the Neurological Alliance website https://www.neural.org.uk/news-24-07-2020/
We are continuing to work with the Neurological Alliance and NNAG (National Neurosciences Advisory Group) to push forward the key actions identified within the Mental Health and Neurosciences Leaders away day, due to COVID 19, these have been put on hold, and we hope to continue to work on these actions in the Autumn.
