Specialist neurological care provider, PJ Care, has launched a new outpatient service for people with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND).
FND is a neurological condition causing symptoms including limb weakness, seizures, movement disorders, or sensory disturbances, without an identifiable structural cause in the brain or nervous system.
After a decade of successfully treating inpatients with FND, PJ Care is offering its holistic, multidisciplinary approach to outpatients at two of their sites, one in Peterborough and one in Milton Keynes. With a lack of provision across the UK to treat the 50-100k people affected by FND, the new service will offer much-needed capacity in line with new draft NICE guidelines for the rehabilitation of people with neurological conditions.
Under highly experienced Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist and Director of Clinical Services, Dr Allan Perry, PJ Care’s multidisciplinary team brings together physiotherapy, occupational and speech and language therapies, with Consultant Neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Abbas Lohawala, and Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist, Estefania Triguero.
Dr Perry said: “This is a much-needed service that will offer hope to the many people in the UK living with FND. We have a comprehensive, experienced team that can deliver the right treatment and holistic care for anyone with FND presentation.
“Over the last decade, we have mastered our approach to create an intensive person-centred, multi-disciplinary programme, so the outpatient service was a natural development of and extension to our existing service. With more than 100 years’ experience in the team of providing expert neurological care, we can offer support at every level, right through to those with the most severe and debilitating symptoms.”
Twenty-year-old Megan Dixon is among the first to benefit from PJ Care’s outpatient service. She’d been told by other services she would never move again. She presented to PJ Care with complete paralysis; unable to walk, talk or open her eyes, after years of declining health.
Her goal was to have a ‘bit of quality of life’ but her achievements after 18 months as an inpatient have been the “miracle she was never expecting”. After a structured plan of therapy and support, Megan is now planning to start university and is setting up home with her boyfriend, receiving ongoing support as an outpatient.
With every facet of care being available on-site, PJ Care’s outpatient service cuts the need for, and associated waiting times of, external referrals, enabling patients to realise improvements over a shorter period and helping deliver savings on rehabilitation costs.
“By realising functional gains for people, we also reduce or remove their long-term care needs, and the related costs,” Allan concluded. “This service is not just about managing symptoms but about restoring hope and offering a tangible pathway to recovery for people who have suffered for far too long.”
For more information visit https://pjcare.co.uk/functional-neurological-disorder-fnd-treatment-services/ or contact Robert Jones, FND Referrals and Placements Manager: email: pjcare.referrals@nhs.net or call 07796713172.
