About the teams

 

About the teams

NMOSD Specialist Nurse

  • Use us as a point of contact when you are worried or concerned about any new symptoms
  • Information or advice regarding medication
  • Support of for relapse concerns
  • Advice and liaison with local neurology services regarding relapse management
  • An assessment of your symptoms
  • Referral to local therapists, continence adviser
  • Information regarding NMOSD and medications to increase your understanding


Dietician

  • Provide advice on nutrition and health
  • For people with NMOSD, advice may be given for weight management (weight gain or loss) or for optimising nutritional status.


Orthoptist

  • Assessment and quantification of your level of vision
  • Relating this information to your visual needs and requirements
  • Transferring this information to team members
  • Bilateral visual loss will impact on
    • Mobility
    • Work
    • Hobbies
    • Social interaction


Physiotherapist

  • Discussion around any physical problems you have identified. Examples can include reduced balance, limb weakness, stiffness, spasms Identifying any physical issues that have not been addressed up to now
  • Information about any physiotherapy input in the past
  • Information about any previous discomfort of injury
  • Discussion around current levels of activity / exercise/ physical care programmes
  • Referral to local services for further input can be made
  • Referrals or provision of some aids such as walking sticks, hand supports, wheelchairs can be made

Occupational Therapist

  • Discussion about your everyday activities and roles
  • Questions about what you have stopped doing or never started
  • Questions about your home environment and support
  • Discussion about any previous OT input
  • Discussion about impact of symptoms
  • Analysing your lifestyle, activities and roles to identify areas of difficulty, and working with you to develop skills and learn ways in which activities can be successfully carried out
  • Adapting the activity itself, for example, by advising on specialist equipment to assist in carrying it out or learning a new technique.

NMOSD Counsellor — Provides help and support to patients including:

  • Advice on coming to terms with diagnosis
  • Advice on managing worries around long term illness and prognosis
  • Referrals to local counselling servicing

The NMOSD service aims to deliver a comprehensive service for patients and includes:

  • Diagnosis and management combining clinical, imaging and laboratory assessment
  • Diagnostic services - testing (Aquaporin-4 and MOG antibodies)
  • Relapse management
  • Optimising medication regimes including rituximab
  • Multidisciplinary team assessment
  • Symptom management
  • Lifestyle issues and health promotion
  • Provides education, information, knowledge and a greater understanding of NMO
  • Liaison and referral with local services
  • Emotional support

NMOSD UK Paediatric Service

For children and adolescents with NMOSD, all care is managed by a consultant paediatrician who works closely with the NMOSD clinical team.

  • Dr Rachel Kneen, Consultant Paediatrician, Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool
  • Dr Saleel Chandratre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford

 


You can get further information about diagnosis, symptoms, treatment and living with NMOSD on our patient leaflets.