Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) began in July 2016 as a scheme intended to support people with disabilities to live full lives in the community. But Australians with ME/CFS are routinely rejected from the NDIS because the Australian government does not consider ME/CFS to be a permanent condition for most living with the illness. In addition, people with ME/CFS have their applications rejected if they haven’t undertaken a course of GET/CBT.

Access to the NDIS for people with ME/CFS is a major focus for advocacy efforts in Australia, including for the upcoming #MillionsMissing campaign. As part of these advocacy efforts, Emerge Australia has launched a petition. The petition asks the Australian government to:

1. Partner with the Australian ME/CFS community to develop appropriate guidelines for NDIS assessors.

2. Add ME/CFS to the NDIS List B of permanent conditions where further assessment is required.

3. Recognise that people with ME/CFS should not be required to have undergone Graded Exercise Therapy or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in order to access the NDIS as these treatments are no longer recommended and may cause harm.

Please support Australians with ME/CFS and demand change, by signing and sharing this petition! Anyone from any country can sign. Comments on the petition are also welcome, to help the Australian government understand how disabling the condition is.

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