www.mndaust.asn.au Freecall 1800 777 175 1 Living Better for Longer: MND Australia Fact Sheet EB3 Multidisciplinary care team What you should know A multidisciplinary care team for people with motor neurone disease usually includes a doctor, allied health professionals (such as a dietitian, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, social worker and speech pathologist) and local palliative and community care workers. Other team members who have particular expertise are involved as needed, such as a respiratory specialist. You can live better for longer with motor neurone disease when health professionals have a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to your care. In many areas of Australia, the regional/care advisor from your MND Association liaises with the team, assisting you and the team get information, support and referral to other services when needs change. About the multidisciplinary care team Multidisciplinary teams are also known as primary health care teams. Team members communicate with each other about your care and help you get care from other members of the team when you need it. Professionals providing multidisciplinary care can be from the same organisation, a range of organisations or from private practice. They can work in the community, hospital, clinic, residential and other care settings. Each discipline‐specific team member enriches the knowledge‐base of the team as a whole and, over time, the multidisciplinary team composition can change to reflect changes in the person’s needs (Mitchell et al 2008). Multidisciplinary care and MND Over the course of your disease progression you may find you need to talk with a respiratory specialist about breathing, an occupational therapist about equipment, a speech pathologist about communication, a physiotherapist about joint stiffness, a palliative care team about support and your general practitioner and neurologist for regular symptom review. You can live better for longer with motor neurone disease when these health professionals have a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to your care (Traynor et al 2003, Van den Berg et al 2005). Importantly, multidisciplinary care provides you with a direct link to one person, who is a member of the team, usually referred to as a key worker, case manager, care coordinator or team coordinator. Your multidisciplinary care team key worker […]