The team at the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) in Bristol (www.uwe.ac.uk/car) have launched a new website which gives easy access to a range of free evidence-based resources to support people with Congenital Melanocytic Naevi or other conditions or injuries that can affect how a person looks. It also offers support for parents.
Known as the Visible Difference Support Hub (www.VisibleDifferenceSupportHub.com), the website has been created with input from an advisory group of representatives from 12 support organisations, including Caring Matters Now.
The resources available through the website include an app, an e-book, videos, booklets, websites and a board game. Many of the resources have been developed for people with any kind of visible difference, and their families, because research by the team at CAR, and others, has repeatedly shown that many of the challenges facing people with visible differences are similar, regardless of the specific type of difference they have. For example, having to deal with other people’s reactions or feeling self-conscious or nervous about new relationships are all, sadly, common experiences that can be difficult to handle. There are also some resources that are specific to particular conditions, including Caring Matters Now’s online support for teenagers with CMN. There are currently 13 resources on the website and more will be added in the future. A new podcast series about dating and relationships will be added later this year.
All of the resources on the Visible Difference Support Hub were developed with lots of input from people with lived experience of visible differences, and relevant support organisations and health professionals. They were then rigorously tested by the team at CAR, so that they can be confident they could offer benefits to the people who use them. The website gives information about the research that has been conducted for each resource.
Professor Diana Harcourt from CAR says “We’re so pleased to be able to share this website and the materials that are on it. We’re not aware of any other website quite like this – one that offers a range of resources, free of charge, that are backed by rigorous scientific evidence. We hope it will make a real difference to people with visible differences and their families, and that it will also be useful to health professionals and teachers”.
The website was created by Neil Leonard, and the illustrations on it were specially created by Abbi Bayliss.
You can access the Visible Difference Support Hub by going to www.VisibleDifferenceSupportHub.com or by scanning this QR code.
