Chronic Pain part 2 will go live via Scottish Parliament Link

Reposted from http://blogs.sundaymail.co.uk/susanas/2012/12/chronic-pain-part-2-will-go-li.html

Chronic Pain part 2 will go live via Scottish Parliament Link

By Susanas on Dec 22, 12 06:57 AM in

For everyone who didn’t know, I have been working on a Chronic Painpetition for last few months to get better services and resources for people in Scotland, this took up a huge chunk of my time but I was not alone in doing it and although I submitted it, It was on behalf of the cross party group on Chronic Pain in the Scottish Parliament of which I am a member of, so if you were all getting a wee bit fed up with me asking people to sign sorry but you have no ideas how many millions of people this petition could actually help.
You can read more about the petition here http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/GettingInvolved/Petitions/chronicpain
Anyway my petition closed on 10th of January and I handed it in to the petition Convenor David Stewart and Jackie Baillie MSP who is currently Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy and also sits on the cross party group on Chronic Pain I have done a lot of workwith Jackie in the past and have come to know and respect her. Here is a picture of me handing over my petition http://webmail1.mail.aol.com/37267-111/aol-6/en-gb/mail/get-attachment.aspx?uid=29573401&folder=OldMail&partId=1&saveAs=IMG_0366.JPG
I have also gained support from Anne McKechin MP and George Foulkes Baron Foulkes of Cumnock who is a life peer and member of House of Lords; they will both put forward debates and questions about Chronic Pain services and resources in both the Parliament and the House of Lords.
I myself will be giving evidence in the Scottish Parliament on the 8th of January which you will be able to watch live from the Scottish Parliaments web link which I will be given on the 3rd or 4th of January so al come back and let you know how to tune in and watch.
The reason I have taken this petition forward is that I myself suffer from Chronic Pain as I have Arthritis in both my hips and I also have a long term condition called RSD/CRPS this petition although starting out Scottish could potentially help over 7 million people in the UK who currently suffer from Chronic Pain.

I was going to write a second part to my chronic pain article about how and why suffering from chronic pain is very difficult but will instead allow everyone else to tune in to the Scottish Parliament to hear live my own personal struggles with my condition and how it affected me and how it still affects me to date, although sharing my own personal story will be difficult, I have to do this to raise awareness to help my peers, their families and carers get the services and resources they need to be able to move on with their lives. So please watch out for another blog update the first week in January with the link for you to watch live from the Scottish Parliament, Pain consultants, specialists and patients from all over the world will be watching.

Until the next time Susanas

You can also add me on twitter @susanas4321

Success for one disability campaign – but another needs your help

The Tireless Mike Sivier @ Vox Political has called for support from all of us who are either Sick & Disabled or believe in our fight for Justice.

This concerns an Opposition Day around Pats Petition and Samuel Millers fight on our behalf to prove the overnment’s mandatory Work Programme for sick and/or disabled persons is in violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Please read the post and take the very simple actions included.

Thanks

Success for one disability campaign – but another needs your help.

The MOST Important Paper you’ll read this week?!

 Today a new paper is launched – The  People’s Review of the Work Capability Assessment. In the foreword written by  Professor Peter Beresford OBE, BA Hons, PhD, AcSS, FRSA, Dip WP; he sums up something many of us have been screaming about for the past 2 years ” “If it wasn’t enough that the Chair of the House of Commons’ Work and Pensions Select Committee and the British Medical Association have both stated unequivocally that the test is not ‘fit for purpose’, we now also know from the direct experience of many disabled people who have first hand experience of the assessment process, just how inappropriate and inadequate it is.”

 This report has taken a year to compile, it is based upon real experiences of Chronically Sick and Disabled people and demonstrates just how biased the process really is. And maybe the closing note is the most important thing of all:

“The reader may wish to consider that sickness and disability

can affect anyone at any time.

Tomorrow it could be you going through this process”

If.you have any time at all to spare, please use it to read this paper and then pass it on to as many people as possible, after all as Aristotle said “you can judge a nation by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens”!

Read the report at http://wearespartacus.org.uk/wca-peoples-review/ – please share and Tweet

http://wearespartacus.org.uk/wca-peoples-review/

Born too Late! How does that make me a Scrounger?

An Open Letter to Iain Duncan Smith

Dear Mr Smith

On the Andrew Marr Show this morning you spoke of needing to protect Pensioners from Welfare Reform Cuts, which you justified by their lack scope and opportunity to earn and increase their Pensions. I agree with you on this point, however I fail to understand how when you offer empathy for their very situation, you refuse to apply the same to another group of people in often identical situations,  Chronically Sick & Disabled people?

I grew up in the 60’s & 70’s and was taught that you go to work and pay ‘your dues’, namely Tax and NI, you live within your means and try to save for a ‘rainy day; this is what I did for over 30 years.

And then I became ill, very ill with something that left me so totally fatigue, my employers, my GP, 3 Consultants , Occupational Health & my family, all worked hard over 3 years to support me arrive at the inevitable conclusion; I had become Disabled through my ill health and could no longer work. That was 3 years ago and since then I have been forced to claim Employment  &Support Allowance; and the changes and cuts you and your colleagues have made under the guise of Welfare Reform mean that I now struggle to survive.

Maybe in your world, where you have access to family money, have a well paid job and good health, you would think that having worked for so many years I had managed to save enough money to support myself but, in my world, despite working hard doing the a job you claim to be so valuable ‘Everyone should engage in it’; the savings I did have, after 30 years of paying my stamp in Community Service, were completed depleted within the first 12 months.

I can not comprehend how, you can claim to understand the difficulties people have when they no longer can add to their finances and yet you continue to claim that people claiming out of work benefits  are ‘Scroungers’.

I never thought that at fifty I’d be not only Chronically sick and Disabled, but be struggling to survive, forced to choose whether I heat my Housing Association Flat or I eat. This is my world Mr Smith, I’m unable to work therefore I also have no scope or opportunity to supplement my income through employment but  because I’m 16 years to young, you’re content to label me as scrounging. You talked about Fairness, well please tell me how is this fair?

New call to put DWP/Atos on trial for manslaughter

New call to put DWP/Atos on trial for manslaughter.

An epetition 

To Investigate the DWP and connected MPs for corporate manslaughter. In relation to the WCA & Atos Healthcare

Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions

To Investigate the DWP and connected MPs for corporate manslaughter.

We have seen deaths rise of people on sickness benefit from 310 in 2010. To 10,600 in 9 months of 2011.

In relation to the WCA & Atos Healthcare.

Sign/Share/Tweet if you agree

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/41070

 

The Political Policies of Poverty

A post on Think Left (I) highlights the problems faced by ‘hidden children , those young people who go under the radar because no one knows why they’re missing from school!

For me this raise questions about what happens when these young people leave school? My guess is they’re likely to find themselves joining the increasing number of ‘Hidden’ Chronically sick and disabled people.

There is an ever growing number of Societies most vulnerable  adults, who have been cynically and callously stripped of their financial independence via them being deemed ‘Fit For Work’ by the DWP, but who are unable to claim/fulfil the requirements for other State Welfare; this is up to 55% of those claimants, according to a recent study conducted by the DWP! (ii)

So what happens to the ‘Hidden’ ill and disabled? I can only hope they have family or another close network of people able, and willing, to support their basic needs of Shelter, Warmth, Food & Drink, & Affection. However even if they are fortunate to have access to such a network this then put them in the category of ‘Hidden Homeless’, forced to revert to being dependant  upon others.

There is yet another ‘Hidden’ group even within the ill and disabled, that is those of us with invisible disabilities, particularly fluctuating conditions such as ME, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, and countless others. Living with widespread Chronic pain on a daily basis  is soul destroying; just imagine NEVER being comfortable, not in bed, sitting in your favourite chair, walking, or standing and you can begin to comprehend what it’s like, then imagine sharp, hot, shooting/radiating/stabbing  pains hitting any or even every muscle and joint and you begin to get the idea. We have better days where the pain and associated fatigue (because we don’t sleep well due to pain) is bearable and we might look OK, and we have bad days where everything you thought about before happens & all at once! I’m sure you can now accept, living like this has a major impact on our mental health also.

No one who is fortunate enough to not belong to our ‘Hidden’ group can understand what we feel like, if we’re lucky, we have family and,or an often small group of people who care about us enough, not to give up on us. Unfortunately the general public, and perhaps more importantly the DWP, frequently do not take the time to try and empathise, therefore those of us with ‘Hidden’ illnesses are more vulnerable than ever, to becoming completely dependent upon someone else. When we’re found ‘Fit’ for Work; we then often find ourselves deemed ‘Unfit’ if we try and claim Job Seekers Allowance!

So where does this leave ill and disabled people who do not have access to a financially able and willing person to support us? Logic can only force me to conclude of the 55% of people unable to claim any income from the State, some of them will end up actually ‘Homeless’, without anywhere to call home and subject to the obvious strains of existing  on the street.

It has to be bad enough to find yourself without a home, not knowing where (and if) the next meal will come from! But how much worse will it be for people already too sick and,or disabled, never mind the next meal just where would you get your medication from?

It sickens me that in 2012, the year of the London Paralympics; here in the UK, chronically ill and disabled people are fighting to maintain their independence, their homes and even their basic Human Rights as !

And just who is doing anything to stop this, the current Coalition Government has, without a mandate from the people, destroyed and continues to strip away resources from the Welfare State, choosing instead to pay private Companies millions of pounds to carry out this devastation. The opposition whilst starting to make noise about ‘unfairness’,concur the only way from the UK economy to be revived is to maintain the Cuts.

This series of Policies to decimate the Welfare State  has created a cycle of deprivation not seen for over 80 years and it is this bigger picture the UK people need to become aware of and quickly!

(i) http://think-left.org/2012/10/11/labours-welcome-helping-hand-for-the-hidden-children/

(ii) http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/atos-scandal-benefits-bosses-admit-1344278