News from Australia

Centrelink have released a draft of Proposed changes to the Disability Support Pension (DSP) Impairment Tables which specifically mention ME/CFS and PEM.

These changes are apparently the result of a lot of hard work and feedback from ME/CFS Australia.

This is potentially very big news given the enormous difficulty people with ME/CFS have faced with accessing the DSP.

 

They're making many changes, most of which are not related to ME. But the changes related to ME and fatiguing conditions (mostly on page 6) are significant:

 

North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) - (12 October 2022)
webinar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUIdbbwcnAE

 

When talking about 31% of respondents whose health professionals are a source of information, anyone know what they mean? I've genuinely never read or heard things on this issue from any medical professional that I didn't know and wasn't just common stuff you can get from any patient community, support group or charity.

Is that what they mean? It took me years to find that information and make it make sense with my experience, so for sure if any physician had given me this basic information at the time it would have been better than nothing. But it's still information you find in patient communities, not from official sources. And it was created by patients, mostly to counter the common disinformation people normally get.

 

We failed Australians with chronic fatigue. Will we do the same with long COVID?

https://www.smh.com.au/national/we-...the-same-with-long-covid-20221101-p5bulg.html

 

I think it was just a few weeks ago that IIRC the health minister, maybe?, said that they're not really seeing any Long Covid in Australia, not a concern to them, there's nothing to do here. Or maybe the president of the medical association?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1590443943749070848


And we're really supposed to have our lives in the hands of people who keep either lying or not knowing basic facts about what's happening?

I've been saying for a while how medicine and healthcare are inherently political but this is really getting out of hands, there are many things in politics that work far better than this, where there is significantly less lying and making stuff up. Governments are heavy on bureaucracy but they are normally not that incompetent.

 

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Training: Hobart
Monday, November 14 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

further details
https://anmftas.org.au/event/myalgic-encephalomyelitis-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-training-hobart/

 

Hundreds of thousands of Australians could be eligible for compensation after a major class action win against Australia’s biggest banks and their insurers.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/b...s/news-story/0dd5af91d5db27c2b7d0922b22cc9b80

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1592971482463932418


If only past and current RACGP had not opted at every opportunity to deny and dismiss the issue of chronic illness and do absolutely nothing good about it, maybe current and future RACGP would have more than all this talk with definitely no walk.

Because the main obstacle to the RACGP doing whatever it is they could be doing here is... the RACGP. Which is a bit like a kind of self-kicking machine except it's someone else who gets hurt. Zero responsibility, though. Apparently. I have genuinely not once, in all this time, seen any expression whatsoever that acknowledges that decades of awful choices are obviously to blame for the lack of anything. There is simply no connection made between a state of systemic discrimination and pervasive refusal and the lack of anything useful out of it.

Imagine being responsible for something but nothing happens if you fail completely, you can even pretend to lead the charge at solving the problem you created while pretending you had nothing to do with it. And probably not bother much and get credit for simply thinking about it. Imagine that. What a cozy job that is. Politics, basically, where you can be the party in power for decades and run on fixing the failed policies of this government. Amazing.

 

The president of the RACGP gets some well-deserved feedback:

 

Ridiculous.

 

The Australian government has released its:

On Long Covid specifically, it claims:

No evidence is cited to support these claims. (And, indeed, no credible evidence seems to exist that would support them either. In particular, we simply do not know how many people have LC in Australia because no-one has bothered to find out.)

 

I've heard nothing good about how Australia manages ME or LC. I hope their plan involves doing something, and that it's not just talk.

 

With another great quote from David Putrino —