Campaign for Disability Awareness

Thank you for all the support for this site .
Please invite your followers to help it grow .
A little information about this site is that the aim of it is for medical students to create awareness projects so each year the site gets passed to the next set of students to use and create a project with .

Your continued support is very needed to help it keep raising awareness .

Image is of small coloured paper notes with thank you written on .

It was great to get such a amazing response for our project as future medical professionals we wanted to learn from you to help us to recognise why we need to realise how much a expert you are by your experiences .

We want your experiences to shape our education and help us become professionals who work with our patients and help break down barriers and stereotyping within the medical world .

Your answers and response certainly impressed us 👏

Who we are?
We are a group of 2nd year medical students at the University of Plymouth who are keen on increasing awareness of hidden illnesses and disabilities. We have been projecting the voices of those who have a hidden illness our previous posts and will continue to do so for a while. We want healthcare professionals to understand what people with hidden illnesses want their medical team to know about them and their condition.
The pictures above are of a session in which we were able to have a brief experience of what life with a hidden disability is like using the aid of certain equipment designed to display the daily struggles.
By doing this project we hope to be healthcare professionals who understand the needs of those with hidden illnesses and how to cater for those needs. This will hopefully make us more inclusive to all of our patients and help us to deliver a better quality of car.

What do you want the doctor to know?

What would you want your doctor to know about your hidden disability? Please feel free to share your experiences or what you want your doctor to know about hidden disabilities, either via the comments or via direct message. Our aim is to use the information in order to make informational posters that can be either given to healthcare providers or put up in the medical school and clinical environment.

Here is another video we were fortunate enough to be able to film which shows Beth, a member of our group, trying to do a simple shop. Beth had movement-restricting arm and finger props, weighted wrist cuffs and a weighted jacket - all changing the way she would have usually shopped. Beth reflects on her experience and how it will change the way she practices as a future healthcare professional💙
Let’s stop raising barriers and start raising awareness💪🏼
The audio is at the end of the post!

We feel very fortunate to be able to share the experiences of Sam, a 38 year old woman who despite having symptoms for 8 years, only received a diagnosis 3 years ago. We hope that by sharing Sam’s with so many others like her who suffer every day with one of so many hidden disabilities within our society, we will be able to increase awareness and understanding of true lived experiences.
Sam is one of so many helping us to stop raising barriers and start raising awareness💙
An audio will be shared for those who find audio posts easier to access💙
Well Connected

Here is another clip one of our team members, Chidera, where she was able to try and experience what it was like to cross a road with hearing loss and macular degeneration, two common and debilitating symptoms of multiple hidden disabilities within our society. Chidera then reflects on how this made her feel, and how this experience is vital in her progression as a medical student and future healthcare professional.
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Well Connected

Here is the first clip one of our team recorded, where he tried to complete some university work on his laptop, using equipment to reduce the movement in his fingers. Sam then reflects on how this made him feel, and how this experience is essential to his future as a healthcare professional.
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Well Connected