More power to you: M.E. patients found to be the least empowered

How can we become more empowered, and what do health professionals need to know to enable this?

Sign the petition to review the NICE guideline for CFS/M.E.

Although there might not be a new treatment to add to the NICE guideline for CFS/M.E., there’s more to healthcare than cures. NICE has decided that the guideline won’t be reviewed, even though it is 10 years old. This decision has gone out to consultation for the next 2 weeks. Just as NICE decide not to review their recommendations, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the US removes CBT & GET as its recommended treatments for M.E./CFS.

Take part in the Yorkshire Health Study

Here’s an opportunity to get M.E. and other long term conditions you may have on the map if you live in Yorkshire and there are some interesting results so far on chronic pain and health inequalities.

Research and healthcare must involve people with M.E. to move forward

There’s a gaping chasm between what’s provided and what people with M.E. need. From where I’m sitting, as a patient first and health professional second, the only way to get what we need is to collaborate. In this blog I show the ways patients are becoming more involved in research and healthcare.

Making decisions about our health

Research shows that if we make decisions about our health ourselves, there will be better outcomes for us. In this blog post I look at UK health policy on this and what to consider when making health decisions.

Prescription Charges Coalition campaign for free prescriptions

A campaign has been launched by a group of organisations calling for an end to prescription charges in England for working people with long term conditions.

What can you do to help someone with M.E. feel less isolated?

Find out what you can do right now to make someone you know with M.E. feel more included and less isolated.

Giving feedback about our healthcare: The NHS Friends and Family Test

I’ve written this blog to explain what the NHS Friends and Family Test is, and how we can use this to give feedback on our experiences of using the NHS.

Best Foot Forward: How to make a difference with positive campaigning

This is the 50th blog post since I started my blog in May! My very first post was about some positive M.E. awareness news from Norway, so I’d like to mark the occasion with a blog post about positive campaigning.

Summary of chances to tell UK health decision-makers what we need for M.E.

I’ve blogged about three ways we can have our say about M.E. treatment in the UK, so I thought I’d make a summary.