Other Publications

Sickness and the Social Model of Disability

This is the first part in a series of blog posts that will explore the uneasy relationship between chronic illness and the social model of disability. From my perspective as a Sick person (more on that controversial word next time) I will explore why people with chronic illness often feel excluded from the Disability Rights Movement (DRM) that emerged out of the social model. But rather than reject the social model I’ll discuss how we, the Sick community, could claim it for ourselves and what a social model of chronic illness would look like. The crucial distinction between impairment and disability lies at the heart of the revolutionary Social Model of Disability that emerged in the 1970s – the model that underpins the disability rights and independent living movements. To paraphrase it simply, impairment is loss of bodily function, whereas disability is disadvantage imposed upon people with impairments due to hostile social attitudes or inaccessible physical environments.

The politics of stigma with ME/CFS

Last month my “shocking” report with Action for ME, Close to Collapse was released, showing the massive failure of the UK social care system to meet the needs of people with the chronic illness ME (otherwise known by the dreadful term Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) For anyone new to M.E., forget the implication that we’re just “tired all the time”. ME is extremely debilitating, both physically and mentally. In fact, research shows the ME patient population has lower scores for physical function and quality of life of any chronic disease group . So 97% of the 850 people with ME who took my survey needed help with 2 or more activities of daily living like going to the toilet, dressing or getting to a local shop. In terms of the Care Act, this means they met the main threshold of eligibility for social care in England. Yet only 6% were receiving a social care package. The news was not “shocking” to the ME community. Neglect, lack of support and even hostility from healt

Do No Harm lobby

This is the text of a speech I gave at a lobby of parliament organised by John McDonnell MP on 13.02.19 called Do No Harm . Campaigners told MPs how to reduce the appalling damage to disabled people's lives caused by social security cuts and reforms. Catherine Hale A hostile environment for disabled people The Windrush scandal revealed how government policies can deliberately make life difficult for its citizens. The same hostile environment has been put in place for disabled people, through welfare reforms that have caused us such suffering and harm, and made us into objects of hostility and distrust. The hostility and suspicion was not accidental. As Mo Stewart, who can’t be here today, has demonstrated, its origins can be found in the writings of two scientists, Gordon Waddell and Mansell Aylward, who’ve advised insurance companies and governments on ways of cutting payouts to sick and disabled people. Their body of work says that most chronic mental and

Catherine Hale

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