Rehabilitation Courses

How a rehabilitation course could help your axial SpA

This information is for anyone with axial spondyloarthritis, including people with ankylosing spondylitis.

Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases / Royal United Hospital (Bath)

The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath (RNHRD) has a long tradition of providing excellent clinical care for axial SpA patients. RNHRD is now part of the Royal United Hospital (RUH) Bath, and continue to run a specialist two-week rehabilitation course for axial SpA.

The aim of this course is to promote self-management and provide patients with the resources to optimise their health.

The axial SpA course aims to help:

  • People with a new diagnosis of axial SpA, to learn a holistic toolkit of management strategies
  • Those experiencing a flare of their condition
  • Those needing to revisit holistic management strategies, in order to maximize effectiveness of medication approaches

The course is run by a multidisciplinary team which includes:

  • Physiotherapists
  • Consultant rheumatologist
  • Occupational therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Podiatrist
  • Therapy assistants
  • Administrator
  • You, as people with lived experience of axial SpA – you are crucial in this course to learn from each other and share your experiences.

The course is largely delivered by the physiotherapy team who deliver daily exercise, stretching and hydrotherapy sessions. Exercise sessions could include stretches, strength training, yoga inspired stretches, Pilates, tai chi, and Nordic walking.

The education sessions focus on empowering self-management strategies, including:

  • Understanding axial SpA as a health condition
  • Fatigue management (occupational therapy)
  • Use of adaptations and ergonomic considerations (occupational therapy)
  • Psychological well-being (psychologists)
  • Role of diet for inflammatory conditions
  • Improving sleep quality
  • Understanding pain, in order to manage it better
  • Understanding medications, to use them optimally
  • Goal setting to maintain these changes
  • Reducing risk of falls and osteoporosis
  • Podiatry assessment for foot health

Each person on the course is reviewed by the consultant rheumatologist on a weekly multidisciplinary ward round where individual progress on the course is discussed and any issues around medications, investigations and complications of disease are dealt with.

The two-week course is group-based (usually 7 people at maximum) and provided at different levels of intensity to cater for different levels of disease severity and functional ability.

The course is residential, with accommodation in single occupancy rooms on-site at the RUH. You can attend daily if local to the RUH.

Accessing the RNHRD/RUH Course

Patients can be referred to this course by their consultant rheumatologist, or by their GP, to be assessed for their suitability for the course.

Referrals should be made via Choose and Book to:

Professor Raj Sengupta,
Consultant Rheumatologist
Royal United Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Combe Park
Bath
BA1 3NG

Further information about the course can be obtained from: Belinda Jones, Course Bookings Administrator on 01225 821349 (belindajones@nhs.net).

 

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (Stanmore, London)

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) runs a three week in-patient programme. It offers information, education, physiotherapy and hydrotherapy. All patients can access occupational therapy and counselling.

The team is led by Dr Gayatri Mittal, Clinical Lead for axial SpA services. For further information please contact Dr Mittal’s office on 0208 385 3040 or email.

Read more