The ME Association is focusing on issues relating to employment and education during ME Awareness Week (7th – 14th May). We have conducted a website survey about employment and will be posting a new one about education very soon.
The survey results will be shared together with your stories about the issues you have faced, or the steps you have taken to best manage your M.E., at work or in education.
We will do this on our website and social media during ME Awareness Week.
To support our efforts to raise awareness of these particular issues, and to help with any events you might be planning, we have today made the following leaflets available as free downloads in our website shop:
Employment Issues and M.E.
Information and advice about stopping work or cutting back hours, keeping in touch with people at work while off sick, and negotiating a possible return to work. This detailed leaflet also looks at work-related benefits, other types of practical and financial help that may be available, early retirement on the grounds of ill-health, and how The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and The Equality Act 2010 relate to ME/CFS.
University and M.E.
Leaving home and heading off to university can be a daunting time for any person, particularly for those with a fluctuating condition like M.E. This leaflet explains how someone with M.E. – with a little advanced planning – can help make a successful start to their time at university. It’s written by lifestyle blogger Pippa Stacey who had to discover what worked best for herself while she was there.
M.E. Children and Young People
Jane Colby, chief executive of The Young ME Sufferers Trust (Tymes Trust), writes about the impact of this horrid illness on children and young people and on what you – their parents, guardians and families – can do to help them.
Examinations and M.E.
This letter summarises the special arrangements that may need to be planned ahead so that students with ME/CFS can make the best use of their potential when taking exams and the special considerations that may be required in the marking process.
Factsheet – What you need to know about M.E.
We hope that this new factsheet will prove a useful addition to any awareness events you might be planning, or as something you might like to share with friends, family, colleagues, employers, lecturers, etc. to inform them about M.E. and to help start conversations about any issues you face.
Please note: These are only available as free downloads. If you require them in printed form and sent to you in the post we will have to make a charge to cover the cost of postage.
Focus on Employment and Education
We want to raise awareness and understanding of:
- the struggle to hold down a job,
- the fear of losing a job and facing an uncertain future reliant on benefits,
- the effect that giving up a career and the loss of employment can have,
- the uncertainty of life on benefits,
- the loss of education,
- the difficulties encountered when trying to continue in education,
- the successes and disappointments that studying can bring.
We are looking for summary accounts of your experience, or you might like to relate one memorable aspect of your story in relation to employment or education.
Perhaps you have been able to return to work and manage your illness, perhaps work remains impossible, or you struggle to work and need to crash when home and have surrendered all attempts at a social life, or maybe you’d like to tell us how hard you tried to stay in work.
You might like to tell us about how your employer has helped improve access to work, or how they haven’t – or why you decided not to tell your employer that you have M.E.
We hope to be able to then share these stories – or extracts from them – on our website and social media and in the local and national press (where we can).
Please try and keep your submission to a maximum of 250 words.
You can use our contact form to email your story or to highlight a personal issue.
Title your email: MEAW Employment or Education
Any stories we use, or extracts taken, will remain anonymous unless we seek your specific consent.
What else can you do?
If you would like to join us in Going BLUE and want to do something that will raise awareness of M.E., please visit our website for ideas, a campaign poster, and details of how you can get involved.
You can find details of other Going BLUE events and activities on our campaign JustGiving page. To start your own fundraising page, simply click on the orange ‘start fundraising’ button.
And if you need any help then please contact our fundraising manager – Helen Hyland – who can also help you organise an event or activity.
If you are unable to organise something yourself, please show your support with any donation you can spare.
Thank you.
#GoBlue4ME
Text: BLUU47 £5 to 70070
from ME Association
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2018/04/me-awareness-week-focus-on-employment-and-education-free-leaflets-for-you-to-download-30-april-2018/
from http://www.meassociation.org.uk
#cfsme
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