DISFIGUREMENT GUIDANCE CENTRE

by Doreen & Peter Trust

The DGC has been working in the field of disfigurement for over 30 years, and in that time there have been many changes in attitude and medical care. Many of these changes have been as a result of our involvement and hard work. Quietly we have established a great deal. We are the first:

• centre for the disfigured in the UK
• to use social skills training for disfigured adults and children
• NHS skin camouflage clinic in the UK
• to establish a media voice for the disfigured
• to publish free literature for the disfigured
• to publish a monthly magazine for the disfigured
• resource centre for professionals and patients
• to offer a seven-day information line for the disfigured
• to establish two-day international skin laser conference/workshops for professionals
• to provide an annual skin laser directory and a quarterly skin laser journal for professionals
• to make pulsed tunable dye lasers available, since June 1990, at six NHS hospitals
• to fund important skin laser research projects in England, Scotland and Wales
• to undertake a large scale, one-to-one survey of attitudes to disfigurement in schools
• to publish a comprehensive schools' report as realistic basis for further studies
• to provide companion book treatment guides for children and adults
• to provide guideline books for parents, grandparents and families of children who are disfigured
• to publish image guides to social skills and self-presentation
• to pioneer Childfriend, a new concept of child-friendly treatment and anaesthesia environments
• to provide a national disfigurement register of specialist services to meet the demands of the changing NHS/GP services

Facts about disfigurement

Each year:

• 7,000 children are scarred by burns
• 26,000 receive disfiguring or disabling injuries as a result of road traffic injuries
• 1 in 3 have vascular lesions such as port-wine stains and haemangiomas
• 1 in 7 have cleft lip or palate
• 1 in 10 have distressing pigmented lesions
• 1 in 3 adults are a victim of crime; of these 4% are the victims of violent crime and suffer disfiguring or disabling injury as a consquence of muggings, violence, or personal assault
• 1 in 10 have tattoos (professional or self-applied) and 1 in 5 feel disadvantaged by these tattoos and seek removal; noticeable tattoos frequently reduce employment potential, e.g. the armed forces and police refuse persons with obvious tattoos
• many people are disfigured or disadvantaged by disease or metabolic and heritable disorders
• 1 or 2 in every 100 have psoriasis
• 1 in 100 have neurofibromatosis
• 1 in 100 have vitiligo
• many are disfigured or disadvantaged by congenital defects such as Down's Syndrome. There are also people whose disfigurement or disadvantage is temporary (no less distressing while it occurs); others are left permanently scarred, distorted, or disadvantaged by conditions such as: facial palsies; eczema; sarcoidosis
• 1 in every 8 or 9 have physiological acne
• 1 in every 5 or 6 have clinical acne

Additionally, life-saving surgery, such as facial cancer surgery, often may be mutilating and leave patients permanently disfigured. Anyone is therefore likely to be disfigured.

The DGC

As the original organisation involved in the care and management of disfiguring conditions, the DGC has produced a range of books which provide comprehensive information for the professional or non-professional concerned with these problems.

As part of the organisation's services to help patients and their doctors, the National Disfigurement Register and International Skin Laser Directory are available, free of charge, to all GPs resident in the UK, on receipt of a stamped (80p) addressed envelope (A5/C5 size).

Other publications, in the Companion Book series, deal with various individual problems and present up-to-date facts and positive information in an easy to read, highly visual and sometimes gently humorous manner.

Because these problems, like all health conditions, are unique to the individual, the DGC prefers not to give highly specialised advice by post or phone, but is happy to supply additional information to your doctor should he or she wish to contact us.

We believe that you, your GP and the DGC can work together to achieve the best possible outcome.

The aim is that together the DGC, you, and your doctor, work to achieve the highest possible care for men, women and children who suffer from disfigurement. We are concerned with help, advice, information, therapy, treatment, family unity, and with the promotion of social cohesion and of greater opportunities for that neglected section of our society, the innocent men, women and children who are disfigured. We call it disfigurement guidance and education, a preparation for life.

Disfigurement Guidance Centre
PO Box 7
Cupar
Fife
KY15 4PF

01337 870281
01337 870310

Associated Medical Information