Celebrating local successes on international awareness days

At the time of writing, we have just celebrated World Diabetes Day (14 November 2023) and World Pressure Injury Day (16 November 2023). In the world of wound care, these two days encompass the bulk of our chronic wound care burden and preventive actions in our field. Therefore, the importance of this week as an avenue to create awareness among the public about small lifestyle interventions that combat skin breakdown cannot be underestimated.

As wound care leaders, it was gratifying to follow social media and find out about activities, happening all over the world, harnessing the dynamism these international awareness days give rise to. World Diabetes Day-related activities ranged from awareness campaigns, with information disseminated to the public, to screening camps, finding undiagnosed diabetes in people who would otherwise not have accessed formal care for a random screening test because they were unaware of a potential problem; earlier identification of individuals with diabetes is one of the World Health Organization's 2030 priorities. Fun-filled activities were also part of the day, including walkathons to raise awareness of ‘getting your steps in’ for maintaining active lifestyles, to wheelchair races and people learning how to walk with crutches as part of foot offloading teaching initiatives.