Explaining a complex condition

Hullo all - I'm completing an ESA review ESA 50 on behalf of my husband, who can't fill in forms. All his problems stem from a massive heart problem several years ago, which he was lucky to survive. It has left him with multiple disabilities and it's impossible to explain them all in the boxes provided, as they are both physical and psychological/behavioural. (Exhausted due to the impact of the original illness, constant pain due to amputations of his feet, cannot cope with anything being different etc. etc.). There is no treatment for many of his problems as they are just what he has been left with, so although I can provide some reports for his memory/concentration and some of his physical issues, I do need to provide quite a bit of the information myself. Even though I'm being as succinct as I can, it's still running to five A4 sheets of additional information. I''m worried they will get bored reading all this information, but there seems no other way of making sure "they" get the full picture.
Has anyone come up against this and what would you advise? I was wondering about ringing the ESA people themselves - is this a good idea? Many thanks all.

Hello Penny

you sound as though you have a real problem there; I'm sure some other members of the forum will have similar issues to face, and perhaps they will be able to help and hopefully reassure you.

It's difficult to know exactly what to do about the volume of paperwork you're going to have to send; whether the decision maker will understand the issues involved and what the implications of them are without the volume of evidence is worrying. Simplistically, you could provide a'this is what he has; this is how it occurred; this is the effect it has on him; and this is how he has to deal with it; and to deal with it needs this that and the other person.

The problem is, as you obviously understand, having a mountain of evidence to read through is not something to be taken on lightly and its possible, as you say, that it won't be read thoroughly. Could you not write out your evidence on your four or five sheets of paper but preface the whole thing with a sort of 'thumbnail snapshot' describing what is referred to on each sheet? It might just stop the decision maker pulling his hair out.

I know that sounds flippant. I know it's anything but. As for phoning the ESA people, well, the best people to listen to are the people in the forum who have had experience of doing just this. I'm sure they'll be a great deal of help to you.

I hope you find the help you need. Good luck

Thank you Shelam - your idea of the thumbnail sketch to preface the whole thing is an excellent one. I've just started a draft of this, giving a bit of a history (very very brief) too. I was hoping he might be reviewed without having to attend a medical (he was too ill when we first applied, and although initially the Capita person didn't understand his condition, when I asked for a review he was placed straight into the support group. But I suspect that won't be the case this time.
Thank you and any suggestions from members who've had a similar problem would also be most welcome.

I have complex and overlapping conditions and agree it was difficult.
I added 15 extra pages of information.

The first page was an index page of extra info putting numbers 1 to 15 and writing next to this their contents or which question it was relating to.

I added page numbers (plus name/NI number/date) at top of each additional page .

I wrote in the form at each question if extra info added.

This obviously made it easy for assessor to read each question turn to extra info and get a full picture as opposed to reading through form and then trying to relate pages of extra information to claim
.
This obviously gave a clear picture as was put in support group without face to face.

I hope that helps

That's really helpful Effie. I have ended up clearly writing out eleven sheets of additional information and cross referencing them. Maybe it will actually help them understand the difficulties he faces.

Good luck Penny! Please come back and reply to this message to let us know how things progress (you will find it easily if you bookmark/favourite it on your web browser now).