Welcome to Medway Neurological Network Website
Our AIM: To be the voice of all those affected by neurological conditions in Medway - a single point of access
Our Mission:
- To defend and improve the quality of health and social care services available to those with neurological conditions
- To raise awareness of neurological conditions in Medway and the support services that are available
- To campaign for improved disability services and facilities
- To promote and support services/ therapies/ research projects aimed at improving health & wellbeing, e.g. Medway Skylarks
Our Participants: Currently we have 13 neurological charities and support groups participating in our Network, and we are also fully engaged with 8 major service providers in Medway. All of our participants are invited to attend our quarterly Steering Group meetings. For a full list of our participants, and links to their websites, please see our Participants page.
Our Contacts: Email: info@medwayneuro.org.uk Facebook: Medway Neurological Network Twitter: @medwayneuro1
Please click on the images below to find out about our Activities, Medway Skylarks - click here for Skylark's videos, and our Awareness Events.
Activities
Find out about our Neuro-cafes, our campaigns, and our planned events e.g. Medway Neuro-Arts Festival, 19-21 July 2019.
Medway Skylarks
We help organise & promote this singing & movement (Sing to Beat Parkinson's) group, that has proven therapeutic benefits - see our videos.
Awareness Events
We help promote our Participant's own awareness events and also organise our own, such as the Medway Neuro Arts Festival 2019 & the Medway Neuro-Fair 2018.
Breaking News:
1. Play 'Say that again': to be performed in Eastgate Gardens, Rochester, on 17 July 2021. This play, based on a book by Jane Cullen, provides a moving insight into living with Parkinson's Disease. It was first performed, to great acclaim, by the Hempstead Players at the Medway Neuro-Arts Festival on 20 & 21 July 2019; it later won a major award at the Medway Little Theatre. Jane is bringing the play back to Rochester to help raise funds for Parkinson's UK. For more information, please click Here. Tickets are priced at £10 and are available through Eventbrite.
2. Kent & Medway CCG
a). Community Bulletin: Please click Here to see the 28 May 2021 issue. All the latest on Coronavirus and health services in Kent and Medway.
b). Report: Experiences of Health Services During Lockdown. Medway Neurological Network contributed to this research by participating in an interview and by facilitating a focus group. Please click HERE to view the report.
Between May and July Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group carried out a range of activities to gather experiences of health services during lockdown. It heard from just over 3,000 people, including over 2,700 members of the public and representatives, and around 700 NHS staff. The aim of this work was to provide feedback to support the health service to make decisions about restarting and redesigning services based on the experiences during the pandemic, and in planning for further increases in Covid-19 infections.
The findings show that:
There are high levels of support from both patients and staff for the continued use of telephone and online appointments in healthcare settings –provided this is not seen as the only option. Patients and staff need clear and coherent information about the pandemic and the actions they should take to keep themselves and their communities safe
Covid 19 led to services and teams working together in new ways – and this collaboration should be taken forward.
3. Medway Skylarks now online: Please go to the Skylarks tab to see details and how to join our Zoom sessions that are held every Saturday morning from 10.30am to 11.30am. Sue Lovell is now taking this group and is using Canterbury Cantata Trust's evidence-based 'Sing to Beat Parkinson's' technique for enhancing wellbeing for those living with Parkinson's disease AND it has been shown to be beneficial for those living with many other neurological conditions.
4. Coronavirus: It is with regret that Medway Neurological Network has decided to suspend ALL of its face-to-face services including Medway Skylarks and the Neuro-cafes that it organises or promotes. This decison is on the basis of very clear advice from Neurological charities and from the Canterbury Cantata Trust. However, Medway Skylarks is now operating online, see above and Jasper's Neuro-Cafe has now been re-launched as a virtual cafe, see the Neuro-cafes tab.
5. Enhanced Clinical Assessment Service Available via 111 in Kent and Medway. As from 1 October 2020 the NHS 111 service in Kent and Medway offers access to a wider range of health care professionals. GPs, paramedics, nurses, mental health professionals, dental nurses and pharmacists are all part of the new NHS 111 clinical assessment service. To find out more please click HERE.
6. Medway & Swale Integrated Care Partnership; bringing together local partners in health and social care. Please click HERE to see the August newsletter.
7. Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Webinar: Phil Bungay participated in this webinar, hosted by NHS England. It included talks by: Geogina Carr, the CEO of the Neurological Alliance; Wendy, who gave an talk on being a patient living with Dystonia; Dr Jason Price a Consultant Neurophycologist at the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough; Dr Michael Dilley from the Wolfeson Neuroreabilitation Services at St Georges Hospital; SW London, and Phil a person living with Parkinson's.
This webinar was part of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme by NHS England. The IAPT programme began in 2008 and has transformed the treatment of adult anxiety disorders and depression in England.
To access this very interesting webinar please click HERE.
8. Suspended: Singing for the Memory Medway: Join the new singing group that is designed for people with dementia and other cognitive impairments. Sessions held on second Friday of each month from 2pm to 4pm at The Parish Centre, St Peter's Church, Delce Road, Rochester ME1 2EH. To see the flyer, please click HERE, and to see the dates through 2019/20 please click HERE.
9. Neurological Alliance has published:
i). The findings of the Patient Experience Survey, see Here for the Key Findings and Here for the Policy Report. Thank you to all those who participated in this survey.
ii). Neuro-Numbers 19, giving the latest incidence figures for neurological conditions - click Here to see this report.
10. Physical Disability Forum: To see the January 2021 newsletter please click HERE.
11. First Disease Modifying Drug for Early Progressive MS approved by NHS: see Jon Jeffery's (MS Society, Medway) interview broadcast on ITV Meridian on 13 May where he gives his reaction to the approval of Ocrelizumab. This drug is expected to be made available from September 2019.
Vivek Sharma: We are very sad to report that Vivek passed away on 17 April 2020, after testing positive for Covid-19.
Our condolences to Vivek's family, work colleagues and friends.
Vivek was an occupational therapist by training and worked at Medway Maritime Hospital in this role until March 2017. He then joined Medway Community Healthcare (MCH) and was based at the Walter-Brice Rehabilitation Centre where he led the Falls team.
Vivek was a participant of Medwaay Neurological Network and helped us whenever he could. He gave a talk on the MCH rehabilitation service, in partnership with Glady Nadar Arulmani, at our Neurological Fair on 24 March 2018.
Vivek was a very kind, helpful and efficient person who will be very sadly missed by all who knew him. Vivek's passing is a very real reminder of just how dangerous this coronavirus is.
We are all extremely thankful to those who put themselves in harms way to provide us with health and social care services. Medway Community Healthcare continues to provide a service for priority patients, see HERE for details.
Emma Chambers, Head of Adult Therapy, MCH writes: These are very sad times for us all and Vivek is a great loss. We are going to pull together a book of condolence and so I will get these added. If anyone else contacts you, it would be great if they could be passed along.
Thank you for thinking of us at this very difficult time and I hope you and your members are keeping safe and well.
Please send any message that you have to: info@medwayneuro.org.uk and we will pass them on for inclusion in the Book of Condolence.
Glady Nadar Arulmani, Clinical Leads for the Community Rehabilitation Service and for Neurological Physiotherapy, writes: Vivek was a great friend and colleague. Its a huge personal loss to me, to our team, NHS and society. He was kind, caring, hardworking and very skilled clinician who would go out of his way to help patients. The gap he has left will be impossible to fill.
