Patient centred care to me is about focusing my assessments and interventions around the needs of each individual patient. It is about ensuring that their needs, values and preferences are at the heart of everything we do and guide our clinical decisions.  Patient centred care is essential when working with people living with MND which goes hand in hand with shared decision making. Each individual will have their own values, preferences and priorities important to them. It is essential for us as health care professionals to respect these  values, wishes and preferences and help patients to create personalised, holistic care plans. In our service we use the social services and wellbeing act to help focus our assessments specifically identifying why they are asking for help; what is important to them, what is preventing them doing the things that are important to them. I find these questions really useful to focus my initial assessment to ensure that I am always focusing on what is really worrying/concerning them and not what I think is worrying them. 

When working with people living with MND it is important to remember that patient’s views and priorities can change frequently and it is important for us as professionals to be flexible and adjust our care and treatment plans as needed especially when this becomes increasingly difficult due to other factors such as  patients experiencing speech difficulties; fatigue; cognitive and behavioural changes and psychological distress.