Podcast Episode 8: Social Values

Dr Abdul Seckam from Cardiff Metropolitan University and Dr Anna Galazka from Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK, will talk about their experiences of conducting qualitative research in the Leg Clubs®.

Dr Anna Galazka, a lecturer in Management, Employment and Organisation Section, Cardiff Business School. Anna is talking about how Leg Clubs can help us address social isolation, loneliness, isolation and stigma relating to living with hard to heal wounds.

We asked our trustees and industry partners to highlight the relationship between the Leg Club and Industry Partners.

Leg Clubs have paved the way in developing a psychosocial model of holistic wound care based on empathy, education, social and peer support, empowering the whole person through social interaction as part of the therapeutic journey. Leg Clubs see people with wounds and people with healthy legs requesting assessment. Once someone has been registered at a Leg Club, they are members for life, in either the Treatment Regime (receiving treatment) or the Well Leg Regime (receiving advice and preventative maintenance and a broad scale of education and health promotion). The ‘Well Leg’ programme at the Leg Club is an integral part of the social model and is aimed at the members’ (patients) mental and physical well-being, health education, advice, maintenance and prevention of further leg-related problem once an ulcer has healed. Members that have healed and wish to remain healed at- tend on a regular three / six monthly basis for a full reassessment, sup- port and advice. Members of the Leg Clubs can rely on a safe venue where their physical, psychological and so- cial needs will be met within a social model of care.

We are delighted to welcome a new speaker, Helen Wood who gives a fascinating insight into the role of the Occupational Therapist. Helen graduated from Cumberland College of Health Sciences in 1989. She then moved to the United States and worked in adult rehabilitation in a large hospital in Washington D.C. She has focused her career on neurological rehabilitation and after return to Australia she obtained her Masters Of Occupational Therapy at The University of Sydney. Helen has presented at numerous conferences both domestically and overseas and has co-authored a publication on autologous transplant. She has taught undergraduate occupational therapy students and has worked for many years completing medicolegal assessments for clients seeking compensation through the legal system. Helen's area of specialization is in adult neurological rehabilitation and traumatic brain injury. She currently works in her own private practice and in a private hospital working with adults with neurological impairments.

We asked our Industry Partners about the importance of education around venous disease and leg ulcers.