Journal of IiMER Volume 13 Issue 1 Invest in ME Research Professor Tom Shakespeare at University of East Anglia has researched and published work on the biophysical explanation for disabilities and how benefit awards have arisen from the WaddellAylward model. In his preface to book Science, Politics,.......and ME, by Dr Ian Gibson and Elaine Sherriffs, Professor Shakespeare wrote the following – “Rather than judging whether a person has a practical chance of being able to find a job they can do in the actual labour market, the Work Capability Assessment investigates whether the person has the ability, in theory, to do any form of work at all, thus tightening the eligibility criteria substantially and making it more difficult to qualify for Employment Support Allowance.” Another change has been introduced, as he says: “A second change is that instead of using a person’s regular GP, who knows them and their difficulties, an ‘independent assessor’ is used, who does not necessarily understand how illness or impairment impacts their life.” This can result again in the denial of benefits..." The UK welfare system's' treatment of poor people (and that includes disabled people) in recent years has drawn attention from unlikely sources. Philip Alston, "the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, warned that poverty in the UK is a “political choice” and that compassion and concern had been “outsourced” in favour of tax cuts for the rich.". Of course all of these things overlap when we discuss ME – all interplay – and one can imagine it is all part of the grand establishment strategy. The benefits scandal that denies disabled people what they deserve by using non-medical subcontractors to assess people; where targets are set to deny benefits and make patients undergo unnecessary duress to overcome a pre-conceived outcome for their disability assessment; where the DWP fund research aimed solely at proving ME can be “fixed” by simplistic approaches that fund careers and assist insurance companies; where the official flawed guidelines are rigidly decided by an institute that claims to be responsible for clinical excellence yet seems to ignore patients' experiences and aligns more with the BPS lobby; where insurance companies deny benefits to patients if they choose not to try the recommendations in the flawed official guidelines Invest in ME Research (Charity Nr. 1153730) World Human Rights Day, like many grand ideas, has a noble purpose. Yet despite their profound messages and campaigns the basic rights to health of ME patients are continually infringed and discarded. Lip service only is paid to the world quangos such as WHO and UN by governments and establishment organisations. For ME there is never any follow up on the implementation. Where was the UN when poor ME patient Karina Hansen was incarcerated in Denmark? Who covered the human rights of Sophia Mirza when she was forcibly sectioned? Where have the Governments, DoH, CMO, NICE been in protecting human rights? Who are they serving? Can one think of another case where it is so detrimental to patients when one doctrine is forcibly imposed on vulnerable people by establishment forces against common sense and when there is no evidence base that stands up to proper scientific scrutiny? From the charity's' response to the 2007 NICE Draft guidelines we have reused the comments on human rights provided by R. Mitchell and V.Mitchell. Private Health Insurers cannot force an M.E. client to undergo unwanted treatment before making a payment, unless those treatments are specified in the contract. Unless the contract of a company states clearly that M.E. clients must undergo CBT and/or graded exercise before a payment is made, the company could well be in breach of contract. Also, every individual has freedom to express views as stated by investinme.org Page 34 of 52 that propose harmful therapies such as CBT and GET as treatments; and the possible payment of government funds to charities to avoid criticism by buying their silence. Played out using ME patients as the pawns. Quod erat demonstrandum
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