Centre for Wellbeing and Quality of Life

Wellbeing through self management and self governance

Image of an arm with psoriasis skin plaques

We are undertaking a collaborative evaluation of the Eczema Education Programme. This programme seeks to improve the education of parents of children with atopic eczema. It is led by the St John’s Institute of Dermatology at the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital Trust. In conjunction with Lambeth Primary Care Trust, the initiative and study is being rolled out across Lambeth. This is one of the largest eczema education programmes in Europe, involving up to 750 parents across 53 health centres, and is nurse led.

The CeWQoL programme team is examining the patterns of referral and areas such as the impact of child quality of life and parental self efficacy. The evaluation work is being led by Professor Steven Ersser with support from Helen Farasat from the School of Health & Social Care. The programme and evaluation are supported by a grant of £345,000 from the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charitable Trust.

The EEP Programme is lead by Karina Jackson, Consultant Nurse (Dermatology), St.John’s Institute of Dermatology London and CeWQoL Visiting Fellow and the evaluation is led by Professor Ersser, with the assistance of Helen Farasat, Research Assistant and Senior Lecturer in Children’s Nursing.

The Person–Centred Dermatology Self–Care Index – A new tool for Practice

The Person–Centred Dermatology Self–Care Index (PeDeSI) is a validated tool to help clinicians to make a systematic and accurate assessment of the education and support needs of adults with long–term skin conditions to enable them to self–manage as effectively as possible.

It has been developed by members of the Centre for Wellbeing and Quality of Life, Bournemouth University in collaboration with patient representatives and colleagues from practice and industry and has been extensively tested in clinical practice.

The Index has ten items and should be competed with patients to enhance the concordance process. The index is accompanied by a user guide which provides instructions of how it may be used most effectively.