The partnership of healthcare professionals, hospitals, patient organisations and tertiary education establishments aimed to develop a training programme that would make a difference in a wider setting than the immediate target groups – and have a knock-on effect in educating the general public, thus reducing social stigma and exclusion. The intention is that the immediate target groups will be empowered to cascade knowledge acquired through the training into the community. This will filter out to key workers such as social workers, hospital liaison staff, youth workers, teachers, schools and people with disfigurements themselves. To ensure this we have taken an innovative approach in not only developing training material that focuses on the challenges faced by people with a visible difference and how to address these challenges but also included a train the trainer package with full pedagogical handbook and also an educational programme around social activism with practical steps as to how to effect change in society, giving examples of successful campaigning in Europe and beyond. This is a unique approach that will ensure the project makes a real difference and has full impact.
In Europe, around 10 million people live with a visible difference (disfigurement). Research shows that many experience stigmatisation and social exclusion with negative impacts on their mental health. People living with a disfigurement have reported that the public and many health professionals have insufficient understanding of the challenges they face and health care staff report having insufficient time and little confidence in meeting these patients’ information and support needs. For most European teams working with people with a disfiguring condition, psychosocial care provision is either inadequately developed or non-existent. This project was designed to address these issues by developing a training programme targeted at healthcare professionals, NGOs, those working with people with visible difference in the community and those with a visible difference. The course can be run as a one-day training (short courses are easily accessible) or extended to a 27-hour micro credential with lesson plans, lecture notes, reading material, home learning exercises and self-evaluation tests. The micro credential was not part of the original application, but the partnership felt we had enough resources and knowledge to implement it.