The UNI team were thrilled to accept an award for the ‘Speak out for Skin’ social marketing campaign at the Wounds UK Awards. The award for innovation in leg ulcers recognises the outstanding achievements of those practitioners who are improving standards in wound prevention in the UK.

Skin Breakdown in its various forms affects hundreds of thousands of people a year in the UK and has a huge knock on effect on their relatives and carers.  The most common forms of skin breakdown include leg ulcers, pressure ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers. Moreover, the prevalence of skin breakdown will continue to grow as the population of the UK ages. The cost to the health service is estimated at around £2.3 – £3.1 billion per year. Yet you don’t often read about skin health in the papers or hear about pressure sores on the news.

The ‘Speak out for Skin’ programme mobilises communities and staff to raise awareness of wounds and support people into services. An array of social advertising approaches include placards for street / community activity, sandwich boards, posters, postcards which act as a ‘voucher’ to help with describing concerns to services, street costume and temporary skin tattoos.  This is supported by community events; work with care home staff and interviews with over 500 local people.

UNI Director Linda Henry said ‘We deliberately took a whole person approach to this work. By keeping in mind all of the needs, networks, services and possibilities; we hope to stand a better chance of supporting improvement. Winning this award is fantastic recognition for the teams, local people and staff.”

The work will feature in a special edition of the Wounds UK Journal. For further information contact: adrian@uni.gb.com