‘FACETS’ fatigue management programme for multiple sclerosis From research into practice

Authors: Thomas, S., Thomas, P.W., Kersten, P., Nock, A., Slingsby, V., Jones, R., Davies Smith, A., Galvin, K.T., Baker, R. and Hillier, C.

Conference: Researching Complex Interventions in Health: The State of the Art

Abstract:

Members of our research team developed FACETS - a group-based fatigue management intervention for people with multiple sclerosis blending energy effectiveness and cognitive behavioural approaches. FACETS was evaluated in a national pragmatic multi-centre MS Society-funded trial. Findings demonstrated improvements in fatigue severity and self-efficacy at 4 months follow-up with these improvements sustained at one year and additional quality of life benefits emerging. However, often the research process ends with the submission of a final report and academic papers. We were fortunate that our funders were keen to support the roll out of FACETS. Here we describe how the MS Society has worked with us and supported the production of a high quality intervention manual and participant materials and provided an infrastructure to enable the provision of national one-day training courses for health professionals. To date more than 150 health professionals have been trained across the UK and Ireland.

Source: Manual