Postcards to Doctors - new project from ME Action

A new project from ME Action:

Note: Since the current CME is only available in the U.S., we are only providing addresses for doctors in the U.S. at this time.

Read full details at https://www.meaction.net/postcards-to-doctors/

 

Great idea and project.

Art and possibly hobby/craft supply shops sometimes have blank postcards done in watercolour paper people can do up themselves.

I think postcards for politicians would be an idea too.

 

I just got my first set of postcards in the mail. Yay!

I'm going to try to write one a day, maybe one every other day.

I expected to get a list of addresses for doctors with them but maybe those will come by email. I'll keep you posted.

 

I got the doctors' addresses via email.
I plan to write the first card today.
If all goes well I may even take a photo and post on twitter.

 

Man, I'm going to have to write small to get all that on a postcard!

 

So true!

I had to practice several times on slips of paper to get my handwriting that small. But I finally managed to fit it all in!

Here's a photo (with the doctor's name removed)

CORRECTION: I wrote the wrong URL on the card. I edited the photo to show the correct address - unrest.film/cme - instead of the incorrect address that I had written by hand.



Pardon the blurred image. I obviously didn't get the focus right.

 

Following your example . . . . (skritch, skritch, skritch).

 

For those who are curious, the line on the postcard that says "Untitled: Emily Lawton" refers to the design on the other side of the card.

Patients are free to design their own cards. I saw a link to a template but I never clicked on it because I just went with the pre-designed cards.

The cards from ME Action have five different designs. Here's what they look like (screen shot from the ME Action website):



(edited for clarification)

 

Just a note for anyone else who is doing this project.

The previous instructions for what to write on postcards had an error in the URL. This has now been corrected on the meaction.net website.

The URL for the CME course should be written with a slash and in lower case, like this - unrest.film/cme

I was so focused on getting my handwriting small enough, and copying the text exactly, that I didn't notice it until after I took the photo and posted it. Then thought, "Hey, that's a funny looking URL..."

I'm have modified the photo in my previous post since that was faster than modifying the postcard (which I will do eventually).

[Edited to make more sense]

 

I put my first batch of five postcards in the mail today!

Code:

https://twitter.com/ahimsa_pdx/status/1164568277147742210

https://twitter.com/user/status/1164568277147742210

 

Here's a short good news / bad news update.

The good news is that there was a huge response for this project! ME Action got requests for more than 3500 postcards.

The bad news is that they have had to put the project on hold for a bit so they can catch up. But they're going to relaunch it in October.

Details here - https://www.meaction.net/2019/08/30/meactions-postcards-to-doctors-is-an-unprecedented-success/

 

I got postcards with no directions and no addresses included, but after reading this I will scour my inbox and see if I missed something.

 

For what it's worth, I got the email with the addresses a day or two after the postcards arrived.

 

I found the text on the website

(bolding in original)

It was also in the photo but probably easier to use the website version.

I can find addresses by myself. All is good.

(I do wonder though, I heard reports that CDC had removed the wording "hidden health crisis", and I can't find it on the website although I didn't look at every last page. Maybe they still say that at conferences?)

 

Yes, sorry for any confusion! I thought you already knew where to find the full instructions or I would have pointed out where they were.

I know it was still on the CDC website as of May 12th this year. I checked because I used that exact phrase on a poster for our local May 12th Millions Missing display.

The blog post is still there but someone at the CDC has changed the title of the blog post (Post last updated: May 14, 2019).

This link lists the ten CDC blog posts from 2017 with the most views. It uses the original title for the May 2017 blog post.


MEpedia also references this same CDC blog post using the original title.

But if you go to that CDC blog post it shows a new title:

ME/CFS: Making strides to enhance the lives of those living with ME/CFS

I'm still going to use the phrase "America's hidden health crisis." It's true that the CDC has updated the blog title but this phrase was something that they did use to describe ME. And it was on the website for 2 years.

Also, the ME Action instructions say "Language for the postcards should be replicated exactly." I would feel awkward modifying the language.

However, it seems reasonable to send a question to ME Action to make sure this phrase is still okay. Maybe the wording could be tweaked a bit? (eg, change "The CDC calls ME ..." to "The CDC has called ME ...")

 

Oh definitely I wouldn't want to modify it more than that, especially after promising to use their wording. But that seems a good change.