Hello to all our supporters and readers of the Emerge Australia newsletter!
Welcome to spring. In this edition of our newsletter, we highlight some of the exciting initiatives Emerge Australia is undertaking on your behalf around the country. We are a little over three months away from the end of another calendar year and potentially 8-9 months away from another Federal election. For us, like for so many other healthcare charities, that means ramping up our advocacy efforts with all political parties, identifying key priorities for our communities and advocating for these priorities with our political leaders.
Spring is a season of new growth, more daylight and hopefully good weather and sunshine. As a sector, we eagerly await updates on the progress of the new clinical guidelines process. This landmark work, which everyone has been waiting for, will hopefully mark new beginnings in diagnosis, management and treatment of ME/CFS. It can’t come soon enough.
An area of our work you may not be as familiar with is our collaboration with the Neuruological Alliance of Australia (NAA). As Deputy Chair of this group of some 38 organisations representing diseases in the neurological space, we are working with the Australian Insitute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on development of a neurological data set that includes ME/CFS. This collaboration is yet another way we are advocating on behalf of our sector, and contributing to broader representation of neurological disorders to Government, with likeminded organisations.
To that end, our research team has already met with the AIHW regarding ME/CFS data collection, a project so critical to impacting the development of health policy. Data underpins all our work, programs and recommendations to Government. Together with your stories and experiences, we have the capacity to create meaningful lasting change to Australia’s ME/CFS landscape – and that is precisely what we intend to do.
We continue to work on your behalf to ensure that people with ME/CFS and long COVID are seen, heard and listened to as we head into the lead up to our next federal election.
As always, feel free to email me directly at: [email protected] should you wish to discuss anything or provide me with your views and/or feedback. I hope you enjoy reading this edition of our newsletter.
Anne Wilson
