'Call to Action' for Ontario Residents re Task Force Recommendations for ME, FM & ES/MCS!

Contact Your Ontario MPP Right Away!

Flood Their Offices With Your Calls!


In preparation for an upcoming event at Queens Park on March 20th, Ontario residents with ME, FM and ES/MCS are being asked to contact their MPPs in person, by phone or email.

Urge your MPP to press the Honourable Dr. Helena Jaczek, the newly appointed Minister of Health of Ontario, to immediately implement the recommendations of the Task Force on Environmental Health made in their Interim Report and released by the government on September 29th, 2017.

This Interim Report contains excellent recommendations that will significantly benefit all those with ME, FM and ES/MCS. The report is called “Time for Leadership: Recognizing and Improving Care for those with ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS”.

Among the first steps called for are to:


1. Change the Conversation and Increase Understanding.

2. Develop a Common Clinical Understanding.

3. Lay the foundation for a patient-centred care system.

4. Increase the availability of providers who understand ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS.


Further details on each of these can be found in the sample letter below which can be used as a template. Simply copy and paste into an email, replacing the text in brackets with your relevant information. Personalize it as you want.

Send to your MPP along with a copy to the Minister of Health of Ontario. Follow up with a visit or phone calls to their offices.

Leave a comment below to let us know you've participated in this important action so we can track responses.

Leave a comment if you have any questions or need help.

RT on Twitter:




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Short Template Letter:



MP (Your Representative Name Here),

On September 29, 2017, the Ontario Minstry of Health and Long Term Care released an Interim Phase 1 Report called “Time for Leadership: Recognizing and Improving Care for those with ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS”, prepared by the Task Force on Environmental Health.

The report found that throughout the health care system and in society at large, there is:

• a lack of recognition of the seriousness and severity of these conditions
• a profound shortage of knowledgeable care providers
• a dearth of clinical tools to support and guide care
• a discouraging shortage of services and supports for people living with these conditions
• an absence of support for family caregivers

These chronic, complex illensses are currently excluded from and neglected by our health care system. Statistics from the CCHS survey of 2014 revealed that over 550,000 people in Ontario have one or more of these illnesses and the numbers are continuing to rise.

Ontario residents need to benefit from appropriate care and support, just as others with illnesses of comparable severity and prevalence do.

The Task Force calls for immediate steps to be taken. Among the first steps, recommendations are to:

1. Change the Conversation and Increase Understanding.
In order to dispel misperceptions and myths about ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS, and to reinforce the serious debilitating nature of these conditions, the task force recommends the Minister make a formal statement recognizing the conditions. They also call for academic chair positions to be created and funded to focus on research, and that OHIP fee codes be updated to recognize all three conditions at the clinical level.

2. Develop a Common Clinical Understanding.
The task force has advised the Ministry to convene an expert panel to agree on clinical case definitions and practice guidelines for all three conditions.

3. Lay the foundation for a patient-centred care system.
To do this, the task force calls on the Ministry to allocate funds towards creating pathways of care for people with ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS, so both patients and providers have clarity on both how to get to a diagnosis, and what happens after. They also recommend that the Ministry work with hospitals and long-term care homes to ensure that these crucial spaces can accommodate and be accessible to those managing ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS.

4. Increase the availability of providers who understand ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS.
Here, the task force asks that the Ministry continue to fund the “enhanced skills program” for third year medical residents in Clinical Environmental Health.

These first steps towards recognition, funding research and education, and transforming attitudes and health care spaces will be the foundation on which a new approach can be built.

As a voter whose life is signifcantly impacted by these illnesses, I am deeply concerned and encourage you to urge the Health Minister to act now to implement these recommendations, addressing the barriers that keep people with these illnesses from getting the care and services they need.

Both lives and money can be saved by proper treatment of these illnesses.

Yours truly,

(Your Name)
(Your Full Address Including Postal Code)
(Your Telephone Number)

Cc:
Honourable Dr. Helena Jaczek
Minister of Health and Long-term Care in Ontario
hjaczek.mpp@liberal.ola.org
416-327-4300



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Additional Resources and References:


To Locate Your MPP:

1. Enter your postal code at this link to find your electoral district.
https://voterinformationservice.elections.on.ca/…/el…/search

2. Look up your electoral district from this listing by sorting it alphabetically to get the name of your MPP.
http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_current.do…


Community Engagement Day March 20, 2018:
(We’ll be posting more about this.)
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/…/MEAO_Notification_Invitatio…


The Task Force on Environmental Health:
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/…/public/p…/environmentalhealth/


To receive regular updates on the Task Force sign up at:
TFEH@ontario.ca


The Interim Report:
“Time for Leadership: Recognizing and Improving Care for those with ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS”
Task Force on Environmental Health
Phase 1 Report
July 2017
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/…/task_force_on_environmental_h…

 

Isn't this going to be used as pro-biopsychosocial stuff?

 

Not that we've seen or we wouldn't be promoting it.

 

Fingers crossed, but to me it sounds vague on the things that matter, and could well play into the interests of those promoting CBT/GET approaches.

Wasn't it a Canadian clinic that patients were campaigning for that turned into a big promoter of the biopsychoscial approach? I don't know the details of what has happened here, but just from the recommendations quoted I'd encourage people to try to get more details on how this would relate to the way CBT/GET were promoted before assuming that this will be good for patients. Sorry if this has already been properly addressed in details I'm just ignorant of.

 

As the large amount of faith and trust I had in the medical system had been quickly eroded, I do take some comfort that they are not recommending any BPS babble in this initial recommendation:

Recommendation #1.1:
Make a formal public statement recognizing ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS. The task force recommends the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care make a statement recognizing ME/CFS, FM and ES/MCS, reinforcing the serious debilitating nature of these conditions, dispelling the misperception that they are psychological and making a commitment to improve care, education and support for caregivers.

Having said that, given the history of the medical system, we must be ever vigilant to their strong tendency to psychologize that which they don't know. It is a fatal flaw in the system. Literally. Medical error being the 3rd leading cause of death.