Atos Register of Shame

Atos Register of Shame

If you've been through the Atos grinding machine, do please submit your own stories to the site linked above. The more their treatment is swept under the carpet by officials, so it's up to us little people to make it publicly known. Your identity will be kept anonymous.

You can email your story to atosvictimsgroup@gmail.com.

My medical assessment is up!

### Incidentally, if anyone can tell me how to make my title into a link with the new Blogger interface please leave me a comment. ###

Hoorah, my medical assessment with all it's lies etc is online and can be viewed here. Scroll down the page to the link marked 'ESA Medical Report Form'. It's a word document, so will want to save to your computer for you to read it.

It's 28 pages long, but do please go have a look at a little of it. I have added annotations throughout the document, pointing out where the nurse mislead, lied, twisted what I said, etc. I am aware that I am fallible, so my own observations will not be 100% correct, but the fact that the entire document is littered with fallacy disgusts me. It seems blatantly obvious to me that her sole purpose the day was to disqualify me from claiming benefit, not from actually assessing my needs.

Confused

I am so confused. So, my duty today, is to share that confusion with you.

I'm just so sick and tired of being constantly ill. If it isn't one thing, it's another, and for the most part I can't even figure out which thing it is causing the symptoms, and therefore what to do about that which is going on with my body. 

What am I talking about? Well, this may not actually make sense, until you've read all of it ... possibly twice.

I have M.E., as we already know. I may have PMDD. I also may be gluten intolerance. (There are other things, but these are the ones confusing me presently).

If you're familiar with my blog, then you're already familiar with some of the ins and outs of M.E.. But what is PMDD? Pre-menstrual Dysphoric Disorder.

"The symptoms of PMDD are similar to those of PMS. However, they are generally more severe and debilitating and include at least one mood-related symptom"

This was first suggested to me as a problem early last year, by my counselor. I had come off anti depressants just before Christmas 2009. In the January I had what I can only refer to as a funny turn. It's very hard to describe, but I became extremely irrational, I lashed out at friends, and people I interacted with on a daily basis (ironically, not Ian). I thought I was losing the plot, but it went away after a few days. Then it happened a few weeks later. It was my counselor whom identified that it was happening prior to menstruation. It was extremely scary. I talked to one of the doctors at my surgery about it. The notion was dismissed. I had one more episode, and then it stopped happening. I haven't thought anything of it until the last few weeks.

A few months ago, during the extreme stress of the Atos medical assessment procedure, I completely lost awareness for about twenty minutes; when I regained awareness I found I'd been self harming, and apparently harming the carpet also. A few weeks ago I had another 'episode', and again, last week I turned on my friends. It's horrible. You don't know you're doing it; the feelings of irrationality and paranoia creep in so gradually, that it feels rational, it feels like what you're thinking is right. And then it suddenly stops, and your mind feels like it has been released from a clamp, and you feel so stupid, guilty, and sheepish.

For me, the day that those feelings stop, they are replaced by a rush of OCD. I need to clean, tidy, obsess over something. So of course, I completely exhaust myself, and crash. Then I have period pain to deal with. I'm at the introductory period pain at the moment, which I've now had for three days. I'm expecting the extreme agony to kick in some time today or tomorrow. I have my kick-ass anti-inflammatories by my side awaiting their destiny as saviour of the month.

I finished the three month gluten free trial ten days ago. I gradually started introducing gluten to my diet again. The idea was to see whether I noticed any difference to my health with no gluten in my diet. I had failed the blood test for Coeliac Disease. I had thought that there was no difference to my health. I have now changed my mind.

I gradually introduced gluten back into my diet. I had Chinese pancakes the first day. A slice of bread the next day. Nothing much seemed to happen. I don't remember what I ate on the third day, but I spent most of the day flaked out exhausted and asleep; I thought this was simply an M.E. reaction to some of the activity from the previous day. I kept falling asleep wherever I sat or lay down.

So, I've eaten gluten fairly normally for about a week now. I didn't really think much was happening. I've been exhausted all week, but I put it down to an M.E. crash and stress. It was only yesterday when G came over and watched me fade extremely fast after I ate stuffing with my lunch, that I realised that I am reacting to gluten.

I had decided to not go over to his place for the weekend. I was feeling grumpy and exhausted when I made this decision. So here's my confusion...

Why was I grumpy? Was it because I am pre-menstrual? Was it because I am reacting to gluten? (One of the symptoms of gluten intolerance is lowered mood following gluten consumption). Was it because I am exhausted by M.E.?

Why am I so exhausted? Is it because I've been pushing myself too hard with M.E.? Have I been pushing myself too hard? Is it because of the stress of everything going on around me? Is there so much going on anyway, or is that just PMDD making it feel that way? Am I exhausted because of hormones preparing my body for menstruation? Or is it because I am reacting badly to eating gluten again?

How is my doctor ever supposed to work out what is going on with me, if I can't figure anything out to give him a lead to start with? This is just ridiculous. I am struggling so hard to cope at the moment.

URGENT FROM BENEFITS AND WORK

URGENT FROM BENEFITS AND WORK

Dear sue,

The usual newsletter will be out on Friday, after our August break.

However, we have just received several emails from organisations including Carer Watch and The Broken of Britain about what is claimed to be government attempts to stifle opposition to the Welfare Reform Bill currently being debated in the House of Lords..

There is no time for us to check out the accuracy of these claims – the deadline for doing anything is 3.30pm today - but as the issue is potentially an important one we are passing it on to you, unverified though it is. There are several email addresses at the end of the article of people to contact.

Urgent call to action
After an incredibly constructive debate yesterday in the House Of Lords the government appear to be concerned about how many Lords had significant concerns about the Welfare Reform Bill, even those Lords who in principle supported the bill had major questions they wanted answers to.

For a bill of this size and importance, convention dictates that the next stage of the bill should be kept in the main chamber of the House of Lords for debate. It's particularly important the bill be continued to be debated in the main chamber as disability access to the smaller committee rooms is very limited and people will not be able to access the committee rooms to exercise their democratic right to observe the passge of the bill from the public chamber.

At 3.30pm today the govermnent are tabling a motion to move the grand committee stage of the bill into one of the smaller committee rooms. Presumably the government are hoping that by moving a bill into the committee rooms it will be harder to scrutinise - there won't be enough space in any of the committee rooms to allow for all the Lords to participate, let alone for us to scrutinise online or attend in person.

This is an outrage - the government are clearly concerned by the level of queries and opposition to the Welfare Reform Bill highlighted by yesterday's debate and wish to quietly sideline it to a committee room where they hope it will pass with less opposition. Tabling the motion for the afternoon following PMQ's is also an underhand trick as it means it will be harder for us to object through the main stream media.

This is our call to arms. This bill affects us, our families and every aspect of our lives, as well as the lives of those currently paying into the system in anticipation of protection should they require it. If we can make enough noise in the next few hours the government will be forced to keep the passage of the bill in the main chamber of the house of lords where it can be effectively and appropriately scrutinised by all.

What you can do to help is this:

Please post copies of this blog onto your facebook, your twitter, stumbleupon, wikio etc. Please email it to everyone you know, please talk about this on your own blogs. Email or phone your MP to register your objections, email or phone the house of lords to explain your concerns, email or phone the media, local or national and explain that whether or not people are in favour of this bill, that it is a fundamental democratic right to have it debated in the main chamber of the house of lords where there is space for all who wish to attend and observe. Highlight the injustice and hypocrisy of the governments behaviour in trying to sideline this important bill into a room too small for all the Lords to attend and certainly too small to allow those in wheelchairs, or with guide dogs, the very people most affected by this bill to be able to observe from the public gallery.

If we make enough noise before 3.30pm today the government will have to drop this underhand tactic and the Bill will continue to be debated in the main chamber of the House of Lords where everyone who wishes to can attend and observe.

UPDATE 13.30
The email addresses to contact are:

anelayj@parliament.uk – this is the chief whip to whom you should send the email and cc it to the others.
bassams@parliament.uk – opposition chief whip.
freudd@parliament.uk – David Freud

You can read the original post on the Broken of Britain blog.

PLEASE PASS ME ON
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested. You are also welcome to reproduce this newsletter on your blog, website, forum or newsletter.

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
Company registration No. 5962666

If you’re not already a member, find out how to subscribe to Benefits and Work and give yourself the best possible chance of getting the right decision.





This message was sent to sue@mophy.com from:
Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd | PO Box 4352 | Warminster, Wilts BA12 2AF, United Kingdom

People annoy me!

People annoy me. Seriously. Why do people spend so much of their time complaining about how things are, yet do nothing to actually put the situation right? I'm getting to the point where I just want to shout at some people now.

I belong to various groups where people discuss M.E. and similar conditions a lot. Everyone agrees that it is unfair that we have essentially been forced to give up our lives, that we do not get recognition or help from the medical profession, and that there is so little research into our conditions.

So, the Vivint competition in which a huge amount of money was given to a research institute recently finished. All people had to do was vote for a certain institute every day ... the organisation with the most votes won the money. I voted every day. I asked my friends to vote. No one did. Now see, when my friends ask me to do something like that, I do it. If it is important to them, then I do it for them. None of my friends did it. What disgusts me the most about this is that a lot of my friends have M.E. themselves, and those friends also frequently complain about how unwell they are. Yet it seems they are not willing to click a few buttons every day when they are online, in order to promote research that will help them.

It's similar in regards to the situation with the Department of Work and Pensions, and even with our own doctors. People sit behind their computers and complain about the treatment they get, and yet they just won't do anything about it. When I started writing to my MP in regards to welfare reform, I was told by some of the complainers that there's no point. In light of the letter from Chris Grayling today I can vaguely understand where they are coming from, but it just makes me want to push more. It's important! The more I encounter ignorance the more I'm going to fight it. The way things are at the moment is ruining peoples lives ... it's ruining OUR lives, so why are we not all fighting it?

It's not doctors faults that they were taught that M.E. is a psychological condition. But it is certainly our fault if we don't give them paper and articles and criteria that show them otherwise. I know there are some doctors who just won't listen, but if we don't try we don't stand a chance. Yet time and time again I hear 'it's not worth it!'. Of course it's worth it! It may not benefit you now, but you are at the very least sewing a seed that may benefit someone later on.

It's not just with regards to illness though, now that I've noticed this annoying trend, I'm seeing it everywhere. I had a problem with ATS a few weeks ago. I'm rather annoyed at the outcome of writing to them too, but again it just makes me more determined to make things right. And I will. But the fact that certain people are actively trying to persuade me not to annoys me even further.

For goodness sake people stop lying down and being doormats .. stand up for yourselves!

Letter from Chris Grayling

My MP has forwarded to me the response he received from Chris Grayling, after he sent to him my own letter. I am really upset by this. I actually sat and cried after reading it.

It's a three page letter, very well written, covering a lot of ground. However, it does NOT cover even half the issues I mentioned in my letter, and it does cover a lot of things I did not even mention. Evidently therefore we have been sent a standardised letter. I find that disgusting. He has not only wasted my time, but wasted my MPs time. What is the point in pretending to be interested in what the public has to offer if he's not even going to read the letters sent to him?

Dear Ms Voljeti

I have now received a reply to my letter from the Department of Work & Pensions regarding the Work Capability Assessment.

I am enclosing the Minister's reply which, as you will see, sets out the current situation with regard to this issue.

My thanks, again, for having raised this important matter with me and I do hope this information is of help to you.

Yours sincerely

Your MP

---------------------------------------

Thank you for your letter of 27 July on behalf of Ms Olana Voljeti regarding the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

Entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is based on an individual's functional ability rather than the condition itself. Anyone claiming ESA  will undergo the WCA which is based on the premise that eligibility should not be based on a person's condition, but rather on the way that condition limits their functional capability.

The assessment gives people with fluctuating conditions the opportunity to explain how their condition varies over time. The questionnaire that customers are sent has been re-designed so that people are directly asked if their mental or physical functions vary, and to give more details of how this affects them as an individual.

The health care professionals who carry out the WCA are trained to ask about and take account of fluctuation. The assessment is not a snap-shot - if a person cannot carry out a function repeatedly and reliably they will be treated as unable to carry out that function at all.

The activities and descriptors used in the assessment were developed in consultation with medical expert and representative groups in order to ensure that they are appropriate for all conditions. The consultation involved considerable discussion about the variability of some conditions. We are now making some changes to the WCA, including ensuring that it more fully accounts for the effects of exhaustion.

Turning now to the issue of healthcare professionals' integrity, I can confirm that the Medical Services Agreement between Atos Healthcare and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not include any provisions either from the Department or from Atos Healthcare to incentivise healthcare professionals to find claimants undergoing the WCA fit for work, and nor would we wish to do so.

It should be noted however that all decisions on benefit entitlement are made by DWP decision makers and not by Atos Healthcare professionals. Entitlement is determined by the Department's decision makers and is based on all available evidence, including that provided by the claimant. Decision makers are rightly impartial and also not incentivised to find claimants under going the WCA fit for work.

We recognise that attending any medical assessment can be a stressful experience, and these will not be carried out if there is enough existing evidence on the claimant's  current condition to decide entitlement to the particular benefit in question. The healthcare professionals who carry out the examinations are trained in assessing vulnerable customers, and when people are asked to come for an assessment they are encouraged to bring a friend or relative with them.

I turn now to the issue regarding the overturning of decisions at appeal. An appeal tribunal hears all evidence afresh, including any new evidence that was not available to the original Jobcentre Plus decision maker, in order to decide whether the original decision on benefit entitlement was correct. Thus when an appeal panel reaches a different decision this does not necessarily mean that the original decision lacked validity.

To try and improve the accuracy of initial decision-making and reduce the number of cases which proceed to appeal, a number of innovations have been trialled within Jobcentre Plus. These include encouraging benefit applicants to submit all the available evidence at the beginning of their claim rather than only producing it for the appeal hearing; and strengthening the reconsideration process so that more decisions are reconsidered, with additional information if available, by decision makers and healthcare professionals, before proceeding to appeal.

Both of these processes have produced very encouraging results. In addition, there are processes in place for the result of appeals to be sent to both decision makers and healthcare professionals in order to improve the accuracy of decision-making, and the Department continues to monitor the outcomes of appeals to continue to improve the assessment.

We are committed to continually improving the WCA to ensure that it is as fair and accurate as possible.

As part of this, we have a statutory commitment to independently review the WCA annually for the first five years of its operation. Professor Malcolm Harrington, a highly respected occupational physician, carried out the first review, reporting in November 1020. We fully endorsed his review and have implemented the vast majority of its recommendations, and are working hard to implement the remainder as soon as possible.

In addition, a department-led review reported in March 2010. We have now implemented its recommendations which include taking better account of the effects of exhaustion and making greater provision for people awaiting or in between courses of chemotherapy. The improvements as a result of this review came in to force on 28 March.

We have now appointed Professor Harrington to conduct a second independent review of the WCA and provide further recommendations as appropriate. He has already started work on the programme of work he has identified, to look in detail at the descriptors for mental health and other fluctuating conditions. Also as part of his review, on 14 July the Government published a call for evidence as part of Professor Harrington's second independent review of the WCA.

The call for evidence is particularly interested in views and evidence about:
- the implementation of Professor Harrington's Year 1 recommendations and the impact they are having;
- what, if any, further work is required in future reviews; and
- the face-to-face assessment.

The call for evidence runs until 16 September. May I encourage Ms Voljeti, to contribute to this process.

I hope this is helpful.

With best wishes,

Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP
Minister for Employment

Eat Properly

I asked my doctor today if I can have a blood test for diabetes. My appointment was to discuss something else though, so I haven't actually talked to him about diabetes properly yet. I have a feeling I know what the result of the whole exercise will be: I'll come back negative for diabetes, and he'll tell me I need to eat properly.

Why do I think I need to be tested for diabetes? Well, ever since the period of really bad illness last year my body has been doing some strange things. If I don't eat for a while I start feeling trembly, sort of inside, and then will start visibly shaking if I don't eat soon after that feeling starts. However, frequently, when I do eat I have that feeling afterwards if I didn't have it before. Having said that, I don't react strangely when I eat sugar.

I'm having the blood test next week, and then an appointment with my doctor to discuss it a week later. I'm going to start keeping a food diary tomorrow (if I remember), so that I can show him what I am eating and when. I should probably write in that diary when I get the shaky feelings too.

I know I don't eat properly. I don't eat as badly as people seem to assume I do though. At the moment my diet is fairly consistent:

- I started having breakfast over the last couple of weeks, which is just Frosties with skimmed milk.

- if I forget to have breakfast, I'll have a yogurt later on (Vanilla Activia)

- I have either gluten free pitta bread with tinned mackerel in it, and a packet of Walkers ready salted crisps

- or a baked potato with tuna mayonnaise and sweetcorn for lunch and dinner

- I then find I need to eat something later on, so may have a packet of square crisps, Pringles, or some form of chocolate.

Sometimes I crave something specific, so if I have the spoons to do so I go and get it. Usually what I crave is beef, so I go and get beef fried rice from the Chinese take away.

It's very easy to say to someone 'you need to eat properly', but I just don't have it in me. I'm doing my best, and suspect G will have me eating better when I move in with him. I forget to eat frequently. I'd rather forget to eat than start making a meal and forget what I'm doing though. I struggle to stand up to prepare food, let alone then standing up to cook the meal, and then do the washing up afterwards. And even if I could do all of these things sitting down, I lack the cognitive function to follow a mental map of how a meal is put together.

It's embarrassing to admit that I am 33 years old and can barely cook myself a meal. I don't know how I'm going to explain all of this to my doctor if that is what he says.