Woman with Multiple Sclerosis trains home care staff how to care for people with MS

A woman who has the debilitating neurological condition Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has been training up home care staff on how to care for people with the long-term illness.

Sue Rushby has been giving training to staff, at Caremark in Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire on MS, to give them a better understanding of what she goes through every day. Ms Rushby receives home care from Caremark.

The 56-year-old married mother-of-two, who lives in Redcar, only started to experience the first symptoms of her illness a few years ago.

During a protracted and difficult recovery from a broken ankle she noticed her leg was dragging. Other symptoms also started to appear and after a while her diagnosis of MS was finally confirmed.

Caremark’s trainer, Jan Morgan, came up with the idea of Ms Rushby training the staff so they could better understand her condition. She said: “Sue was very open and honest with our group and was able to clearly explain with a lot of humour the many complications that the condition creates. She described having two lives: one before MS and another with MS, which is something not many of us had stopped to think about.

“The session was a great success and everyone came away with a greater appreciation and understanding of what it is like to live with MS and how building an honest and trusting relationship between carer and client is so important when caring for someone with an illness like this.”

She added: “Due to the success of this first session, another session is in the planning, we are now hoping to make this a regular event as part of the ongoing training staff at Caremark (Redcar & Cleveland) receives.

“We really appreciated having this opportunity and are very grateful to Sue for sharing her story with our carers. Going forward I feel this will have a really positive impact on the way we care for clients with MS and will only enhance the high level of care we already deliver.”

Ms Rushby, who used to breed show dogs and once competed at Crufts, found once she was diagnosed, her illness progressed quickly. She soon became dependent on care and needed specialist equipment including a personalized electric wheelchair. The rapid change in her condition meant increasing difficulty with fatigue, movement and tremors which in itself brought their own problems.

She said: “I still am a little uncomfortable having others complete my personal care, but having trust and understanding with your carers is crucial and promotes stability which is a vital part of delivering good quality care.”

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition of the central nervous system. In MS, the coating around nerve fibres (called myelin) is damaged, causing a range of symptoms. It affects around 100,000 people in the UK and most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20-40. Roughly three times as many women have MS as men.

click here for more details or to contact Caremark Redcar & Cleveland