People with burns or trauma scarring can often feel isolated because they do not get opportunities to meet others with similar experiences. Our aim is to launch an online forum to create a safe and supportive environment to share experiences, get scar advice and gain access to our other charity services which aim to make it easier to live with burns and scars. Our vision is a world where scars do not limit a person's function, social inclusion or sense of well-being.
People living with burns or trauma scarring may not be able to travel long distances to the few support groups in the UK. They may also be left confused by options available to them for scar management. It is estimated that around 250,000 people suffer a burn injury in the UK every year, most of these won't be severe, but we have identified a high demand for people to have a safe place online to talk about their experiences with their peers and to get advice from trained professionals.
This year we have been working hard developing a safe and secure platform to host our online forum. We're almost ready to launch but we need your help to make it a reality. The forum will be managed by moderators and will be a place where people living with burns and scars can share experiences and support each other. They will be able to get advice on scar management and reach out to access other services provided by The Katie Piper Foundation. This could be the first step for some survivors.
The pilot project will run alongside research with the Universities of Sheffield and Nottingham to measure outcomes. We expect that the long term benefits will be wide, for example we know that meeting other people with similar experiences can be beneficial to the well-being of people living with burns and scars. We also hope this platform will help introduce people to other charity services available through the Foundation which can benefit people with burns and scars throughout their lives.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
