CLAPA at Appearance Matters 7
CLAPA at Appearance Matters 7
Working at CLAPA is a real privilege – helping to support a really passionate community, providing high quality information, working with the dedicated health professionals – all bringing a great deal of satisfaction. However, one of the things that CLAPA does that perhaps we don’t talk too loudly about, is supporting research into the causes and treatments around cleft. I don’t mean that we fund this work; the precious funds raised by our wonderful community and talented fundraising team are dedicated to our practical works (support, inform, etc.) rather than funding research by others (although we do our own research of course!). Rather, what we do is ensure that the patient voice is represented in high quality cleft-related studies taking place across the UK – by connecting studies to members of the community, overseeing research project reports, and assisting in project development.
Now, I will have to give full disclosure here, professionally I am a trained scientist, so I take a real pleasure in being able to have an oversight over this amazing work, and I’m fortunate to have inherited a place on a wide range of research projects from Rosanna (former CLAPA CEO).
Last week, I was lucky to be invited to attend the Appearance Matters 7 (AM7) conference (where CLAPA had a stand), organised by CLAPA’s long-term partner the University of the West of England, and co-hosted by another CLAPA partner, the Scar Free Foundation, at the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
What an event! The focus was on current research and good practice around appearance, body image, visible difference, appearance altering surgery, disordered eating, the role of the media and cultural influences, interventions, innovative research methods, provision of care, and education – and cleft was strongly represented. AM7 brought together some of the leading researchers from around the world, not to talk about the causes of visible difference, but the impact of living with a difference, talking about ways that young people can be supported in developing a greater resilience to the extra challenges that they might face, and the impacts of the media on this. You can get a taste of the event at the conference website.
AM7 was also a great place for networking and not just with researchers, but other community organisations too. The event also saw a meeting of the Appearance Collective, a relatively new community of small-to-medium appearance related charities. This group (in which CLAPA is closely involved), is looking to identify ways in which we can work together to identify the common ground between our communities, ways to share resources (to deliver our support more efficiently), opportunities to run joint campaigns and events, and find ways to share best practice in delivering our work. Look out for some joint working in the future!
Overall, AM7 was a really good event for CLAPA – those of us who were lucky to attend have come away inspired, enthused, and loaded with opportunities, connections, and ideas to make CLAPA even better.
We also premiered our new video at the conference, you can find it here
