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House of Commons Reception 12th May 2011

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Category: Awareness

Published on Tuesday, 14 June 2011 09:48

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International Fibromyalgia Awareness Day
House of Commons Reception 12th May 2011
By Pam Stewart

Many thanks to the wonderful people who travelled to London to meet with MPs for this reception.  Several MPs attended and were given first hand personal attention and information.

The aim of the event was to make MPs aware of the difficulties faced by the lack of treatment and the problems of benefit assessments. Each MP received the following information, along with personal stories highlighting the challenges people with fibromyalgia face.

The Link to Effective Treatment:

Many people with fibromyalgia find that they are unable to work as their symptoms get worse.  Often they have to wait years before they get a diagnosis and effective treatment options and in the meantime have lost their job, because of increased time off.

It takes longer to improve their health the longer symptoms have remained untreated. Even when a diagnosis is reached treatment is very variable and some patients are still being told that there is nothing that can be done.

When treatment is timely and effective many more options are available for people to lead full lives with support and at present most are being denied this.

There is no data on fibromyalgia prevalence in the UK, its impact on the NHS or DWP, so we only have anecdotal evidence.

It is no good having a campaign to get people into work when the treatment needed to make this possible is not routinely available.

We would ask you to support:

• Improved care pathways being developed for fibromyalgia and chronic pain
• Changes to Work Capability Assessments that recognise fluctuating conditions and pain 

If you would like to send this information to your own MP please send it to them and point them back to our site so they can obtain more information on fibromyalgia.


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