Welcome

Research and consultancy on disability, work and health

Hello, I’m Catherine. Drawing on 12 years at the crossroads of advocacy, policy and academia, I bring lived experience perspectives into research and policy on disability, work and health. I do this through my own research, and by supporting others to centre disabled people’s knowledge through inclusive research design.

As the founder of Chronic Illness Inclusion, I specialise in accessibility and inclusion strategies for people with energy limiting conditions, invisible illness and fluctuating or episodic disability.

I champion Flex Plus working - a model for flexible working that is tailored to the needs of people with long term health conditions.

How can I work with you?

· Relevant research design: Work with me to ensure your research reflects the concerns of people with health conditions and disabilities and brings benefit to our lives.

· Flexible working for all. Disabled people require flexibility at work as much, if not more, than other groups of workers. Partner with me to put health and disability at the heart of your flexible working policy.

· Accessibility for invisible, fluctuating and energy-limiting conditions. 1 in 3 disabled people has an energy-limiting condition. Make sure your accessibility and inclusion strategies don’t leave us behind.

· Inclusive recruitment. I can work with you to reach a hidden talent pool that is too often locked out of the workforce by rigid process of job design and recruitment.

· Coproduction and Public and Patient Involvement (PPI). To ensure disabled people are meaningfully involved in research on work and health.

Comments

What are energy-limiting conditions? An introduction to chronic illness at work

What are energy limiting conditions? A guide for employees and their managers is a new resource, produced for Astriid charity. I hope it will be a gamechanger for unlocking conversations about health, disability and work, and lead to more people with chronic illness getting the support they need at work. I've lived with an energy limiting condition (ELC) for decades, but for a long time, I didn’t have the language to describe my needs and ask for adjustments that could have helped me take part in life. I didn't even know if I was allowed to do so, because I didn't see people like me in representations of disability or in the landscape of disability rights. The work I did with Chronic Illness Inclusion (CII) taught me that many of us feel the same. The gap between our day-to-day reality and society's understanding of chronic illness as a form of disability is vast. Many people report that this conceptual gap, and the lack of understanding from everyone - from friends...

Ways of Working - a life story

I was asked to talk about my 'Ways of Working' recently. It turned out to be a brilliant opportunity to connect up so much of my life and my work. Working from bed since 1996 I first developed My Ways of Working in the 90s as a student living with ME. To get around my very poor mental and physical stamina I studied part time, mostly from home, often in bed, in short bursts of concentration interspersed with rest. It may have been a strange existence, but it got me a First Class degree from a top University. However, I soon found out that I was utterly unemployable. Pigs would fly before the Ways of Working that made me a high flying student would be accepted by employers in the graduate jobs market in the late 90s. I had no choice but to claim benefits. Then, in the early 2000s the New Deal for Disabled People came along: a specialist voluntary support scheme for disabled people who want to work. “Yay”, I thought (in those days employment support providers were all ...

ELCResearch - a new mailing list for research and coproduction

I founded Chronic Illness Inclusion (CII), an advocacy organisation for people living with energy limiting conditions, chronic illness and pain. CII began life as a funed research project in 2017. From the start, the CII Project mailing list was about building a community of people living with chronic illness and chronic pain who didn't feel represented by existing disability or social justice advocacy organisations. Over the years I, and others, ran various surveys and consultations that gave subscribers the opportunity to have their voice heard on issues such as social policy, disability rights and healthcare services. The level of engagement and participation in research from subscribers to the CII Project list was amazing. Sadly, CII was not viable as a vehicle to continue the research and advocacy work that was at the heart of the initial research project. It was too hard to get funding. Most of all, it was not sustainable for me, as someone living with chronic illness, to le...

Catherine Hale

Search This Blog