The Importance of the FND Clinic
The Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) Clinic is a Mindgardens Neuroscience Network funded project.
Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) are a common and potentially reversible cause of neuropsychiatric disability. The highest prevalence is among young to middle-aged adults of whom more than a third are, as a result, forced out of the workforce and experience significant levels of disability.
Currently, there is a distinct lack of coordinated service provision for FND in NSW and throughout Australia in general. Many patients and their health practitioners report inadequate levels of education and training in relation to the assessment and treatment of FND (Lehn et al., 2019). In developing the Mindgardens FND clinic, we recognised that the treatment of FND requires an empathic, tailored multidisciplinary approach, the principles of which are embedded in the model of care our clinic has adopted.
The Mindgardens FND Clinic has been established to provide short-term, post diagnostic multidisciplinary care to FND patients in NSW. Additionally, we will evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of our multi-disciplinary assessment and intervention program and use this information to further refine our model of care. This clinic will contribute to increasing FND awareness and knowledge among health-care providers, improve the management and care of FND in emergency, inpatient, and outpatient settings, and develop treatment tools relevant to caring for FND patients across public and private sector settings. Collection of clinical data at entry into the clinic and post assessment is a vital part of the FND Clinic.
If you are interested in referring a client to the clinic or being referred yourself, please visit our Referral Page.
Grace's story: how the Mindgardens FND Clinic helped a young woman regain her health and confidence
21 year old Grace Corkhill lives with functional neurological disorder (FND), a legacy of a childhood health crisis.
In the video above Grace talks about her experience: how FND had left her isolated and fearful before a referral to the multidisciplinary Mindgardens FND Clinic in Sydney; how attending the clinic got her mental and physical health back on track; and her hopes and aspirations for the future.
