People with chronic and long term conditions face a variety of obstacles, including stigma and discrimination, at school or at work. These issues can potentially affect a large share of the population in the EU. Young patients report often that they face many obstacles at school because of their disease, and the workplace is also an area where patients report experiencing obstacles and discrimination.
The European Patients’ Forum is committed to combating discrimination on the ground of illness and to addressing health inequalities from the perspective of patients since its beginnings. Non-discrimination is one of the key goals included in their strategic plan 2014-2020.
As part of their work towards combatting discrimination they have published a position paper on discrimination to which EFA has contributed, on behalf of patients with allergy and airways diseases.
This position paper is the second in a series of positions on discrimination. The objectives of this position statement are:
- To raise awareness amongst decision makers of the challenges that patients with chronic and/or long-term conditions face in education and in the workplace.
- To become a tool to engage important stakeholders including employers, educational institutions, health professionals, and appropriate ministries to break down the barriers that patients encounter in education and on the labour market.
- To make recommendations from the patients’ perspective to ensure decision makers at EU level take actions towards patient-friendly education and workplaces.
You can read the paper in full here