Wound Awareness Week: You Don't Have To Suffer In Silence, Australia
Source: Queensland University of Technology
Article Date: 29 Mar 2011 - 2:00 PDT

It's not something people like to talk about much - but it's an issue which affects more than 470,000 Australians and absorbs $2.6 billion of the health care budget each year. It can stop your social life in its tracks and cause a lot of physical pain. Many people think there is nothing that can be done about chronic wounds. But that's not true.

This week is Wound Awareness Week. And nurse practitioner in wound management Michelle Gibb from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) wants to get a very important message out there: "There are simple things you can do to improve your healing outcomes and to prevent wounds from coming back. You don't have to suffer in silence."

Great leaps and bounds have been made in best practice wound management in recent years, and if you seek out specialist care, you can turn your situation around, according to Ms Gibb, who leads the Wound Healing Community Outreach Service at QUT Health Clinics.

"It's not normal to live with a chronic wound that is not healing," she said.

"Many people think they just have to live with it. Sometimes elderly people think it's just part of getting old."

Sixty-nine year old Glenda Outhwaite from Burpengary knows first-hand how debilitating it can be. She said she'll never forget the pain of her first leg ulcer, which started as a scratch that didn't heal, and ended up lasting for more than three years. She had visits to hospital, tried natural remedies and eventually she visited her GP every day for a new dressing, while spending a small fortune on the dressings at the pharmacy.

"Your life revolves around this ulcer," she said.

One day, when a different GP was on duty, he suggested that Mrs Outhwaite attend an ulcer clinic at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Getting the right, specialised care changed Glenda's life. She healed within a few months, which was remarkable given that she had an auto-immune disease called lupus, which made her a slow healer.

Mrs Outhwaite has had two wounds appear since. In both cases she sought help from the Wound Healing Community Outreach Service at QUT, and she healed even more quickly on these occasions.

"I'm excited to know that I never have to worry if I get another ulcer, because I know I just have to ring Michelle at the wound clinic and that will be the start of the healing process. It's as simple as that," she said.

Ms Gibb said the clinic used specialist assessment and diagnostic techniques to find the cause of the wounds and to identify factors that could slow down the healing process. She said they also devised an appropriate management plan for each individual patient.

Mrs Outhwaite said she was enormously grateful for the care she had received.

"You're just free to do as you please when you're healed. The miracle of no pain - I get so excited about it!" Mrs Outhwaite said.

"When I see Michelle I just feel like giving her a hug!"

The evidence-based research Ms Gibb used to help heal Mrs Outhwaite's leg is being augmented in the world's first interdisciplinary national wound research centre, the CRC (Cooperative Research Centre) for Wound Management Innovation, which opened at QUT in October last year.

"We expect to see even more innovation in this field thanks to the research the CRC is doing," Ms Gibb said.

Anyone looking for specialised treatment can visit the Australian Wound Management Association website to find their nearest practitioner or clinic.

Information sessions and expos are happening right around the country this week, with some of QUT's foremost wound researchers taking part. For details check the Wound Awareness Week calendar of events here.