• Petition for Disability Allowance and Attendance Allowance
• Petition to raise awareness of the suffering of people with CFS/ME in the UK
• Limit CBT with NHS petition to Prime Minister
• Benefits Petition
• Campaigning for Research into ME (RiME)
• Traumatic Hospital Treatment of a patient with M.E.
• A Lobby of the APPG: A need of Accountability and a Firm Resolution
• Saying "No" can be positive.
• Click here to fund research

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to recognise the vital support that Attendance Allowance (AA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) provide to disabled people, and to ensure that these benefits are secured and are not removed as part of any future reform of the social care system in England.

Submitted by Peter Hand of Mencap – Deadline to sign up by: 07 December 2009

Click here

petitions.number10.gov.uk/AttendanceA/

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to help bring awareness of the suffering of over 250,000 people in the UK who have CFS/ME."

To sign, click here

petitions.number10.gov.uk/chronicfatigueme/

More details from petition creator

At present, the diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue syndrome and Myalgic encephalomyelitis (which affects around 250,000 people in the UK) can take a minimum of three years.

This is due to the fact that Health care professionals do not have a definitive method of diagnosis and, at present, this occurs through a process of elimination whereby other similar diseases are tested first and if the sufferer does not have these is then deemed that they have CFS or ME.

We the undersigned are, therefore, petitioning the Prime Minister to raise awareness and funding for research into a clear method of diagnosis.

Click here  petitions.number10.gov.uk/NHSCBT/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to limit the promotion & delivery of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy [CBT] within the NHS according to available evidence.

More details from petition creator

Following economist Lord Layard’s promotion of CBT on economic grounds, the NHS has seen a boom in the funding made available for the exclusive employment and training of CBT therapists in the NHS. However, equal funding has NOT been made available for a diverse range of psychotherapies.

CBT continues to be aggressively promoted on the grounds of ‘evidence’ of its alleged effectiveness in treating some forms of mental distress, thereby severely and unfairly biasing public perception of CBT as a cure-all when this is patently untrue. Published evidence exists that shows CBT to have no long-term benefit in treating common difficulties such as anxiety or psychosis.

Further evidence also shows CBT to worsen symptoms in people who suffer from, for example, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). As CBT is promoted on the grounds of ‘evidence’ of its effectiveness with some patients, this petition calls for the cessation of the use and promotion of CBT in the NHS where there is either no ‘evidence’ of its effectiveness or where ‘evidence’ exists to show that CBT is ineffective or deleterious to a patient’s wellbeing or symptoms.

petitions.pm.gov.uk/DLA-genuine/

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to protect & help people recieving DLA who are having to reapply due to Government changes in how this benefit is allocated."

"People who are genuinely chronically ill/disabled & have been recieving DLA/SDA are having to do battle with their local DHS/GP's etc to reapply/appeal to have their allowances re-instated.This is causing untold stress, distress & adding to their illnessess & no doubt will cause ultimately some poor souls death.

HOW DOES THE GOVERMENT INTEND TO LOOK AFTER THESE VULNERABLE PEOPLE IN OUR SOCIETY?"

Closing Date: 21 February 2009

The above has been prepared and is ready to go to all 646 MPs. The top part of the page presents a few facts about ME and the current state of biomedical research in the UK. Then, lower down the page, MPs are invited to declare whether or not they think the British Government should be funding research into the underlying physical causes and disease process of ME.

In order to save on postage, the letters were going to be hand delivered to the House of Commons. However, shortly before Easter I learned that there would be a handling charge of 24p on each letter - meaning a total cost of around £160.

Having reflected on the matter, I have decided I will probably post the letters and, accordingly, put out a stamp appeal. I feel the best way of doing this is to ask people to pledge x number of 2nd Class stamps via email. If the greater number of stamps are pledged, I will then ask for the stamps in and the project will proceed.

Please help.

Best Wishes

Paul Davis

10 Carters Hill Close

Mottingham

London SE9 4RS

rimexx@tiscali.co.uk

www.erythos.com/RiME

NB I have considered doing this over the internet but decided against (1) I think one is likely to get a better response doing it through the post (2) I don't think it would mean any less work; it would involve keying in (and then deleting) 646 email addresses; I don't have a secretary to help.

ME Free For All.org supports this great initiative from RiME and suggests that you follow our example of putting as many 2nd class stamps as you can afford in an envelope and sending them to Paul. We are sure that he will achieve the target but he is always able to use stamps wisely, so be generous.

Read about the treatment of one severe M.E. sufferer, in a locked psychiatric unit, in an open letter from Catherine Ashenfelter of The Grace Charity for M.E.

Following the events of the APPG meeting of July 12th and the official minutes that followed, it has become clear that there is a high amount of dissatisfaction with or objection to the approaches of the majority of the NHS 'Chronic Fatique Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalopathy (CFS/ME)' clinics amongst the CFS/ME community, and that this fact was not properly recognised at the APPG meeting for a number of reasons ........ For more details and how to become a co-signatory, click A Lobby of the APPG.

Catherine Ashenfelter of  The Grace Charity For M.E. would like you to complete this survey about any treatments that may have been helpful, or that may have had any bad side effects. While there, you are invited to download a useful document, " Saying No can be positive", warning against Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Graded Exercise Treatment (GET).

Von Jones from ME Chat reminds us how much we can raise for M.E. research funds by using the search engine Everyclick. So far £2146.84 has been raised for ME Research UK (biomedical research into ME) just from clicking. Everyclick is a search engine (like Google) but gives 50% of its profits to charities according to the number of clicks the charity supporters make.

As Everyclick becomes more well known, MERUK is competing with more charities for the available funds so needs as many supporters as possible. If you haven’t joined already, please go to www.everyclick.com/uk/meresearchuk. Make it your home page so your clicks will benefit ME Research UK, click on the icon to become a supporter and do some clicks each day. It will say at the top 'Your selected charity is ME Research UK ' and if you click on the charity name it will show you the total number of clicks, number of supporters and amount raised so far.

Please spread the word among all your friends and relations. Von says: "I made it my signature on every e-mail because some friends said they needed reminding, and I make Everyclick my first port of call for searches and also click daily on the various news headlines. The average number of clicks per supporter per day is less than 2 so just 2 extra clicks would make a big difference."