Coming soon…..we have teamed up with researchers from The University of Glasgow to investigate what people with progressive forms of MS think about physiotherapy and other rehabilitation services.

In particular, the questionnaire will seek to find out the proportion of people on the UK MS register with a progressive form of MS who use physiotherapy services, their opinion of physiotherapy and how they would like physiotherapy to be delivered. It will also explore how physiotherapy services vary across the UK and what other types of rehabilitation services are used.

The team at The University of Glasgow are keen to find out if there are any links between the level of disability, quality of life and how worthwhile people think physiotherapy is for them. The questionnaire is focussing on people with progressive forms of MS because rehabilitation for this sub-group has been highlighted as an area that requires more research. Indeed, with the formation of the Progressive MS Alliance, there has been an increased focus within the international MS Research community on treatments, therapies and symptom management for progressive MS.(www.progressivemsalliance.org).

Evan Campbell, a Physiotherapist and the study’s Chief Investigator said, “Physiotherapy is often used by people with progressive MS. As physiotherapists, we often think that we know what people think of physiotherapy from our experiences with patients; however this may not be the whole picture. This questionnaire will not only give us an insight into how access and use of physiotherapy services vary across the UK but how people with progressive MS would like their physiotherapy to be delivered and what their honest opinion is of physiotherapy. In addition, we will also be able to see how many people across the UK are able to access other MS specialist services and complimentary therapies. The results of this study may highlight gaps in physiotherapy services and influence future guidelines for rehabilitation services”. This questionnaire is due to be released in late July 2015 and will be available to anyone on the Register who has indicated through their responses that they have Primary or Secondary Progressive MS.