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Leg clubs: A new approach to patient‐centred leg ulcer management
Author(s) -
Lindsay Ellie
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
nursing and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.563
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1442-2018
pISSN - 1441-0745
DOI - 10.1046/j.1442-2018.2000.00053.x
Subject(s) - loneliness , medicine , social isolation , club , social support , general partnership , peer support , nursing , holistic health , isolation (microbiology) , physical therapy , psychology , alternative medicine , psychiatry , psychotherapist , finance , pathology , economics , anatomy , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
Loneliness is a significant health‐care issue for many elderly patients in the community. The correlation between social isolation, poor compliance to treatment, and low healing rates for patients suffering from leg ulcers is well documented. Pain, odour, bandages etc. contribute to low self‐esteem, depression and social stigma. Home visits by community nurses cannot provide the social and psychological support required by these patients. Responding to the holistic needs of this client group, the author set up Debenham Leg Club in 1995 to provide leg ulcer management in an informal, non‐medical setting, where the emphasis is on social interaction, participation, empathy and peer support. This social model was conceived as a unique partnership between the district nurses and the local community, in which patients are empowered, through a sense of ownership, to become stakeholders in their own treatment. The value of the ‘club’ concept is evident in the happy, welcoming, uninhibited atmosphere that characterizes the clinic. Non‐compliance to treatment has been virtually eliminated and evidence of greater healing rates has been illustrated through many patients whose long‐standing ulcers have healed or greatly improved as a direct result of this change in approach. Patients' willingness to attend for systematic ‘well leg’ checks and ongoing health education has dramatically reduced the incidence of recurrence.