In today’s edition of the Vernon Morning Star, Vernon City Council spoke out in support of the Disability Without Poverty Network’s proposal for an increase to $1200 a month for people receiving provincial disability benefits.
We congratulate and thank Vernon City Council for their support of the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities and community partners in the Disability Without Poverty Network’s proposal . The increase in overall funding the Minister refers to in the article is very different from the increase that individuals have received ($120 over the last 11 years). $300 million is a fraction of BC’s total budget. Moreover, people who cannot afford safe housing, healthy food and other essentials end up costing the province more in health care and other costs.
There’s a new complex chronic disease clinic in Vancouver that will conduct research and support doctors and patients dealing with illnesses like ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) which is wonderful news. The clinic has a chance to win a $150,000 grant for medical equipment from the Aviva Community Fund. There’s also a current petition to encourage the federal government to fund more ME research.
Between Dec 3-12: Hit the “Vote Now” button and vote!
Vote for “Medical equipment for a new chronic diseases clinic in Vancouver”. The clinic serves people with ME, FM, MCS and Lyme disease. The clinic could win up to a $150,000 grant for medical equipment.
Each registrant gets 15 votes total, but can only vote for a particular cause once a day. So you could vote a maximum of 10 times for the clinic.
Please also sign the petition to Canada’s Health Minister to fund research for people with ME. From that site: “Canadian research funding for ME/CFS in the last 10 years equals to 6 cents per patient per year for this disease.”
ME or Myalgic encephalomyelitis is recognized as a disabling nervous system disease, according to the World Health Organization classification of diseases. There is no cure, the cause of the illness is still unknown and there are no treatments–only symptom management.
Some experts in the field of ME/CFS say that this disease is just as disabling as progressive multiple sclerosis, congestive heart failure or late stage AIDS.
The 2010 Community Health Survey calculated that over 411,000 Canadians have the disease, 23% more than in 2005 and a staggering 205% more than in 2001.
No medical specialty is embracing this disease, resulting in patients left to their own devices or with a general practitioner who does not have the knowledge or time to deal with patients with this complex disease.
Patients are often stigmatized, largely because of the misleading and inadequate other name for the disease: chronic fatigue syndrome. Many people living busy lives can feel fatigued. People living with ME feel sick, fatigue being only one aspect of the illness.
Interest in researching ME is increasing and much work has been done in the last decade or so, but funding for research remains inadequate and imbalanced compared to other chronic illnesses.
