- Telehealth offers important access for people with MS
- Health professionals differ in their approaches to exercise plans
- Australian professionals are confident using telehealth but would like more education around exercise.
Why access to Telehealth is so important
For people living with MS, managing their health-related needs can be a complex and time-consuming process, often requiring a wide range of healthcare professionals. This can be a financial and physical challenge for many people, which telehealth access can help with.
Since COVID-19, Australians are now accessing this service more than ever, improving access to essential care, and in particular making things more accessible for those in rural or remote areas.
Exercise can help decrease MS symptom severity
Exercise plays an important role in reducing severity of MS symptoms such as mobility issues, fatigue, and muscle weakness.
Australian Allied Health Practitioners (AHPs), including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and exercise physiologists, are the often the first point of contact for managing MS symptoms beyond medication.
These AHPs are crucial for introducing and supporting exercise behaviour change.
Beyond providing exercise plans, AHPs also play an important part in encouraging a long-term commitment to exercise by using a wide range of behaviour strategies. These include setting goals, creating exercise plans tailored to each individual needs, and by positive reinforcement tools such as using a milestone tracker to celebrate progress.
Exercise delivery via telehealth in MS
Associate Professor Yvonne Learmonth, an MS Australia funded researcher and physiotherapist at Murdoch University, is leading a research project called “Engaging the MS community to Promote Exercise” which will bring the benefits of exercise to more Australians with MS via telehealth.
She will train health care professionals on exercise benefits in MS and in behavioural change theory, to help people with MS build and maintain exercise habits. Health care professionals will then deliver and support a telehealth exercise program for their clients.
Associate Professor Yvonne Learmonth says “As a physiotherapist I am aware of the unique privilege we have to positively influence health choices of people with MS.”
Survey highlights current expertise and future training opportunities
Towards effective MS telehealth exercise programs, Associate Professor Learmonth’s team surveyed AHPs to understand existing strengths and knowledge gaps.
For exercise to be helpful in symptom management over time, it’s important that professionals give clear and consistent guidance.
The survey looked into the knowledge, preparedness, confidence, and further training preferences of 58 Australian AHPs, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and exercise physiologists.
It focused on their delivery of telehealth exercise and behavioural change therapy specific to MS.
The majority of AHPs (91%) were already using behaviour change strategies in their practice, in particular goal setting, identifying key facilitators (such as social support and tailored programs), and by reinforcing progress (including milestone tracking apps).
There was a large difference between the professions in their familiarity with MS exercise guidelines, with 67% of participants being aware of the current guidelines to be used in Australia.
There was also a large variation in the confidence of AHP’s in providing MS specific exercise care, highlighting the need for more focused training to be provided in future.
What do health professionals want to learn next?
The survey asked the AHP’s what training they would like in future. Most of the practitioners surveyed showed interest in three main areas:
- How to best deliver exercise programs to people with MS
- Ideas to promote behaviour change
- How to provide this care via Telehealth
This shows a need for targeted training so that all AHPs can deliver targeted and effective exercise care remotely.
Future Directions
Future research should focus on creating MS specific training programs that combine exercise plans with strategies to maintain motivation and consistency.
It is important that both AHPs and people living with MS are involved in this process, to make sure that the training programs are relevant to the MS community and can be flexible to individual needs.
We look forward to the outcomes of Associate Professor Learmonth’s project, from which she hopes to see “more people experiencing the lifelong benefits of exercise and reducing MS symptom burden and disease progression.”
