 |
 |
Hi This sounds awful, but not unusual of impairment/illness for which the medical profession ignores information about. Some of what you identified was also said about Dystonia in the 60 and 70, ( when there were not test to id it) similarly about others such " syndromes." Is to bad that those who work in medicine do not teach history in the curriculum. This might eliminate medical historical error from repeating itself. I can see a role for the social model in that sense. Maria -----Original Message----- From: Mairian Corker [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 1999 7:33 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Social model and chronic illness Dear All, I don't know if anyone else in the UK saw the documentary on BBC 1 TV last night about chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) in young people, but it had me hopping mad, and it demonstrated pretty well why we ignore the social relations of ME at our peril. The programme was based on research with 400 families containing young people with ME. Among the atrocities documented were: * medical practioners using the High Court to impose a particular viewpoint of treatment of ME - the psychological model that essentially claims that ME is a learned beahviour and can therefore be unlearned through regimes of activity etc - and threatening parents with making their child a ward of court if they did not comply. * young people, already very ill with ME but not depressed, being incarcerated in psychiatric units who espoused this method of treatment and coming out of the units with severe clinical depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. * parents being accused of 'neglect' (i.e. child abuse) and, worse, of having Munchausen's syndrome for insisting that their children were ill, not psychologically disturbed. * children who couldn't go to school because the sheer effort of walking between classrooms exhausted them so much that they were too tired to learn (no wheelchairs offered) * one family, who went to Europe to avoid sending their child for this treatment, were traced through Interpol, returned to the UK, and the child forceably taken to the unit. * numerous examples of the Children Act being invoked by Social Services at the behest of the medical profession to impose this method of treatment, whilst totally ignoring the feeling and perceptions of the child as indicated in the Act. I could go on, but I'll burst a blood vessel! More information can be found at <www.bbc.co.uk/panorama> Best wishes Mairian Mairian Corker Senior Research Fellow in Deaf and Disability Studies Department of Education Studies University of Central Lancashire Preston PR1 2HE Address for correspondence: 111 Balfour Road Highbury London N5 2HE U.K. Minicom/TTY +44 [0]171 359 8085 Fax +44 [0]870 0553967 Typetalk (voice) +44 [0]800 515152 (and ask for minicom/TTY number) ********* "To understand what I am doing, you need a third eye" ********* %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%