Our Skin Camouflage Service, which aims to help people with self-harm scars is now Trust-wide

Helping to shed the stigma of self-harm….

Our pioneering Skin Camouflage Service, which aims to help young people with self-harm scars improve their self-confidence, has been successful in its bid to progress as a Trust-wide service - meaning it will now be rolled out across all of our mental health and learning disability business streams.

The exciting project was first piloted in May with young service users at our Helping Hands clinic in Wigan, where the young people were taught how to use special medical skin camouflage to cover their self-harm scars.

On the day of the pilot, specially-trained nurses taught the young people to apply the bespoke, colour-matched creams, which significantly reduce the appearance of scars. The creams, which each last up to eight months, were then prescribed to the young people on NHS prescription so they could continue using the creams at home on a daily basis.

The project was a result of a partnership with Changing Faces – a registered charity which has helped tens of thousands of people with facial disfigurements cover their scars using special camouflage creams.

The Skin Camouflage Service, which aims to help people with self-harm scars improve their self-confidence and raise awareness of the role medical camouflage creams can play in recovery, is the first time medical camouflage creams have been used in a mental health setting as part of a mental health care recovery package.

The feedback we received from our service users and their families following the pilot was overwhelmingly positive. Four young people told us that they swam for the first time in several years and two other young people told us that they now feel confident enough to go to their high school prom as a result of using the camouflage cream.

“The scars from where I’ve self-harmed were one of my biggest concerns when I started college this year,” said one young service user who was involved in the pilot. “With the camouflage creams I was able to go to college and meet new people without having to worry about being judged on my scars. The creams have really boosted my confidence and self-esteem – they’ve been amazing!”

Following our successful bid for funding to support the project, the Skin Camouflage Service will now be rolled out across the Trust for service users of all ages. This exciting opportunity means we will now be able to provide the skin camouflage treatment for individuals whose scarring significantly impacts on their mental health and well-being.

To find out more about the project, contact Dr Sandeep Ranote, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Project Lead by emailing sandeep.ranote@5bp.nhs.uk or Caroline Stuart, Project Manager by emailing caroline.stuart@5bp.nhs.uk

Click here to download Our Skin Camouflage Service leaflet.