Showing posts with label daily telegraph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daily telegraph. Show all posts
Friday, 21 December 2007
Tory-graph thieves!
The cheek of it! I open up my newspaper today and what do I find? An article telling me all about the 'there weren't three kings' issue. The Daily Telegraph have evidently been reading my blog! They claim it is written in response to the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments on the subject, so maybe it's Dr Williams who is a Giraffe-a-licious fan! I'll have to see about getting myself invited to the Lambeth conference this year. I'll sort them all out!
Friday, 16 November 2007
M.E., NICE and me.
Anyone remember this? http://giraffealicious.blogspot.com/2007/08/dear-sir.html
The 'yuppie flu' tag has raised its head once again in today's papers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/16/nflu116.xml
Let's get one thing straight. I haven't seen these NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence, my foot) guidelines. I'm only going on what I've heard and read. Back in August, when I wrote the Dear Sir blog, it seemed that they were a positive thing. The media reported that NICE were demanding that M.E. be treated more seriously by the medical profession. A step forward I'm sure you'll agree. However, today it has emerged that their definition of treatment is the use of largely psychological therapies. It should be noted that I have no issue with the graded exercise also recommended, provided that it is carried out by well-informed, caring practitioners and that it does not become a license to bully sufferers.
The main reason for this information coming to light now appears to be that the One Click Group (a pressure group, although I'm not exactly sure what that is!) are taking NICE to court in an attempt to get the policy rewritten. They argue that NICE's guidelines imply that M.E. is all in the mind. If that is indeed the case then they are right to challenge the institute. M.E. has psychological elements tied up in it, all long-term illnesses do. It's hardly surprising for a patient with 10 years of misery behind them to experience some sort of depression. The important distinction to make is that the psychological treatments are for the depression, not the M.E. Psychological therapies have their place but are not a valid treatment of the very real, physical side of M.E.
The most grating thing about this whole debacle from my point of view is the use, once again, of the term 'yuppie flu'. It should be banned. It is referring to a group of people in a derogatory manner. You wouldn't get away with it if the group were defined by their religion, race, gender or sexuality. There is no reason that the media should be permitted to be so openly insulting to people united in the suffering of a serious illness.
The 'yuppie flu' tag has raised its head once again in today's papers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/16/nflu116.xml
Let's get one thing straight. I haven't seen these NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence, my foot) guidelines. I'm only going on what I've heard and read. Back in August, when I wrote the Dear Sir blog, it seemed that they were a positive thing. The media reported that NICE were demanding that M.E. be treated more seriously by the medical profession. A step forward I'm sure you'll agree. However, today it has emerged that their definition of treatment is the use of largely psychological therapies. It should be noted that I have no issue with the graded exercise also recommended, provided that it is carried out by well-informed, caring practitioners and that it does not become a license to bully sufferers.
The main reason for this information coming to light now appears to be that the One Click Group (a pressure group, although I'm not exactly sure what that is!) are taking NICE to court in an attempt to get the policy rewritten. They argue that NICE's guidelines imply that M.E. is all in the mind. If that is indeed the case then they are right to challenge the institute. M.E. has psychological elements tied up in it, all long-term illnesses do. It's hardly surprising for a patient with 10 years of misery behind them to experience some sort of depression. The important distinction to make is that the psychological treatments are for the depression, not the M.E. Psychological therapies have their place but are not a valid treatment of the very real, physical side of M.E.
The most grating thing about this whole debacle from my point of view is the use, once again, of the term 'yuppie flu'. It should be banned. It is referring to a group of people in a derogatory manner. You wouldn't get away with it if the group were defined by their religion, race, gender or sexuality. There is no reason that the media should be permitted to be so openly insulting to people united in the suffering of a serious illness.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Dear Sir
If I told you that I read The Daily Telegraph would you hold it against me? I promise I'm not a raving Tory. I don't really have any strong political leanings, other than toward Martin Sheen in The West Wing and I'm pretty sure that it's easier to lead a country in a TV show than in the real world.
The Telegraph has always been the paper of choice in the Giraffe-a-licious household. Whilst obviously having the appeal of a broadsheet, ie. a paper that reports news rather than 'celebrity' sightings, it also has the best sport section of any British newspaper.
However last week saw a story appear in its hallowed pages, of such absurdly lazy writing, that I was moved to write to the Editor. The article reported on new guidelines published by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence on M.E. and the treatments and therapy that should be made available to patients. Despite the content of the story and the article's own acknowledgment that M.E. is a real and debilitating illness, The Daily Telegraph still saw fit to run the story under the headline of "Treat 'yuppie flu' more seriously, doctors ordered". I was stunned. Yuppie flu was a term coined over 20 years ago when there actually were yuppies and ignorance of M.E. was extreme. Yet still, even above a news article calling for better treatment and support for sufferers, this term refuses to disappear. It doesn't matter that inverted commas were used around the expression. The phrase is completely redundant and unnecessary. Replace 'yuppie flu' with M.E. in the headline and the report is fine, good even. Sufferers have been fighting for years to get rid of this term and to have their illness officially recognised. That finally happened in 2002 when the Government's Chief Medical Officer released his report on M.E./CFS and declared it to be a genuine and serious illness whilst also detailing the ways in which he felt that research and support should advance.
It goes without saying that 'yuppie flu' is a terribly insulting name for a distressing and incapacitating disorder. Yuppies disappeared at the end of the 1980s. 'Yuppie flu' must follow shortly.
The Telegraph has always been the paper of choice in the Giraffe-a-licious household. Whilst obviously having the appeal of a broadsheet, ie. a paper that reports news rather than 'celebrity' sightings, it also has the best sport section of any British newspaper.
However last week saw a story appear in its hallowed pages, of such absurdly lazy writing, that I was moved to write to the Editor. The article reported on new guidelines published by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence on M.E. and the treatments and therapy that should be made available to patients. Despite the content of the story and the article's own acknowledgment that M.E. is a real and debilitating illness, The Daily Telegraph still saw fit to run the story under the headline of "Treat 'yuppie flu' more seriously, doctors ordered". I was stunned. Yuppie flu was a term coined over 20 years ago when there actually were yuppies and ignorance of M.E. was extreme. Yet still, even above a news article calling for better treatment and support for sufferers, this term refuses to disappear. It doesn't matter that inverted commas were used around the expression. The phrase is completely redundant and unnecessary. Replace 'yuppie flu' with M.E. in the headline and the report is fine, good even. Sufferers have been fighting for years to get rid of this term and to have their illness officially recognised. That finally happened in 2002 when the Government's Chief Medical Officer released his report on M.E./CFS and declared it to be a genuine and serious illness whilst also detailing the ways in which he felt that research and support should advance.
It goes without saying that 'yuppie flu' is a terribly insulting name for a distressing and incapacitating disorder. Yuppies disappeared at the end of the 1980s. 'Yuppie flu' must follow shortly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
