Research from the United Kingdom suggests that not enough resources are provided for those affected by disfigurement.

Many of the hundreds of thousands of people who must adapt psychologically and socially to changes in appearance consider health professionals their main source of information, the study by the Picker Institute for the Healing Foundation found, but some patients feel that health professionals are unable to communicate well with them and often do not direct them to good sources of information.

Health professionals are at the center of this information gap. All the patient groups—including people with cancers of the head and neck, people with burns, and people with conditions like psoriasis—said health professionals are their most important source of information, but often do not communicate well, and fail to “signpost” them, to further good sources of information.

In 2008, the Healing Foundation plans to organize a 2-day health conference to discuss further work in this area.

[July 10; Medical News Today]