Sally is going to tell you all about how different people say different things to her in terms of progress. I'll let her explain.
Hi,
Those eager-eyed amongst you will know that I have been busy with lots of business meetings and networking with various academic people in the past couple of weeks. I am often surprised when people seem to know a little bit about M.E and are genuinely interested. What has struck me recently though is that many people seem to think that awareness has been raised to the point where the general public are now aware, and our illness has been recognised both as a disability and as a valid illness. They seem surprised that ME Foggy Dog and other advocacy work is still needed.
I have to remind myself that pre-Foggy, I'd had M.E/CFS for 7 years without knowing much about my own illness apart from that M.E included being very tired (sooo much more than tiredness though). I wouldn't be surprised if the general public still think M.E/CFS is mainly tiredness. Not the
I have been too tired to have THE conversation. You know the one I mean. The conversation where I explain that M.E is still having to be debated in Parliament (Great news about the debate on 21st June. Treatment and research funding are still huge issues that charities and advocates are working hard to highlight and make progress. The conversation where I tell them that many in the healthcare profession still don't believe that M.E/CFS is a real illness and that many in the education sector are unable to support children adequately due to a lack of awareness and appropriate infrastructure. I know this because I have spoken at length with teacher friends of mine who say they care about their students but don't have the knowledge or system to support adequately. They have attendance targets to meet and long-term sickness absence affects their ability to reach those targets. They are used to illnesses where mind over matter works.
I was talking to an education academic recently and he said that teachers implemented individual care plans for any child that was suffering with any illness, M.E/CFS included. What I didn't have the energy to tell him was that ME/CFS is unique and what may work for a child with cancer, for example, may not work for an M.E/CFS affected child. There is no point extending deadlines for a couple of weeks as the child may well be unable to do schoolwork for months on end. Knowledge and understanding of the illness would be hugely beneficial to all concerned: Child, parent, teacher. I would also be concerned as to where they are directed to for information about ME/CFS. Do they go to a school-linked GP? Would this GP be in the GET camp? In which case, any information received by the school wouldn't be fit for purpose. Best case scenario - A child and their parents would be in contact with a teacher who knows about ME/CFS and would have appropriate support from day one. I may still venture towards creating a training organisation to address this issue....that's one of the many big decisions I have to make post-July 4th.
I see so many threads on Twitter where people are discussing whether we have made progress in terms of raising awareness. Many say we haven't, but there are a few sufferers who are noticing a little bit more understanding in their 'real-lives' offline. Personally, I know I have educated many people in my own circle about M.E/CFS and I have been contacted by hundreds of 'friends I haven't met yet' who have relatives/friends/colleagues with the illness, thanking me for helping them to understand the illness. In terms of what ME Foggy Dog has achieved, progress has been made.
Slow and steady wins the race, right?
Love,
Sally
(and Foggy OBVIOUSLY)
xxx
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