Written evidence submitted by Allerdale
Multiple Sclerosis Society
As Chairman of the Allerdale (West Cumbria) branch
of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, I am particularly concerned
with the assessment criteria used in the Work Capacity Assessment.
MS is a very serious and disabling condition of the
nervous system causing widely differing symptoms, many of which
- nerve pain that does not respond to pain killers and extreme
fatigue - are invisible. It is also characterised by fluctuating
periods of relapse and remission.
As you will know, there is no cure for this degenerative
condition for which there is no predictable course - the uncertainty
of which causes much anxiety. In addition the efficacy of disease-
modifying drugs for symptom control differs from person to person.
For these reasons, any assessment carried out on
a single occasion cannot result in a reliable judgement on the
person's ability to sustain paid work. Unfortunately for those
wish to try, attempts to make the most of a remission period by
working hard to catch up either in a job or in the home, so often
result in MS fatigue and a relapse into return of symptoms which
are either more severe or spread to another part of the nervous
system.
People with MS find that stress plays a large part
in the course of their illness (as, indeed, in other illnesses)
and the manner in which the assessment is carried out needs to
be monitored by staff who have experience enabling them to understand
the problems and anxieties faced by people with fluctuating degenerative
disease.
March 2011
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