Posted 4/05/2016 09:00:00AM by Anne Hogden
Dr Anne Hogden shares her perspective on improving healthcare services for people living with motor neurone disease.
I am a healthcare services researcher working to improve delivery of services to people living with motor neurone disease (MND). Before research, I was a speech pathologist in a specialised MND multidisciplinary team, where my role was to assist people living with MND to manage a range of swallowing and communication difficulties.
Finding a balance
My work looks at the decisions that people living with MND need to make for their healthcare and quality of life. These decisions are frequently complex and confronting. My aim is to improve the process of decision-making, so that patients and families can find a balance between ‘making the most of life right now’, and considering their needs for the future.
People who are living with MND require health services that provide timely, skilled services in response to patients’ changing needs. ‘Making the most out of life right now’ does not mean spending time on health service waiting lists.
Designing solutions
Both my research and clinical work involve partnering with individuals and families living with MND to find solutions to problems they are experiencing. Being able to co-design solutions - whether strategies for symptom management, methods of service delivery, or issues of healthcare policy - is an effective and rewarding way to improve the lives of people living with MND.
My hopes for the future
While we await a world free from MND, I think it is important that healthcare organisations are better equipped to provide streamlined, expert services to people living with MND, no matter where they live in Australia.
Dedicated funding for collaborative partnerships between local health service providers, specialised MND multidisciplinary teams and researchers, using innovative means of service delivery will go a long way towards achieving this aim.
Dr Anne Hogden
Macquarie University
Research Fellow with the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science,
Australian Institute of Health Innovation.
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state MND Associations can continue to provide support, services and information to people living with MND.
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