Lack of support for people living with a skin condition

Gillian Owen

Head of Campaigns and Communications, Changing Faces

Living with a skin condition can have a devastating impact on mental health and wellbeing, but with the right support this needn’t be the case.

Growing up in a society that places so much value on how you look can be tough. When you have a visible difference, like a skin condition that affects your appearance, the impact can be devasting.

Living life with a skin condition

Changing Faces ambassador, Natalie Ambersley, has the skin condition vitiligo. Vitiligo leads to white patches appearing on the skin, also known as leucoderma. The condition causes the skin to lose its pigmentation and appear white or sometimes pink.

Natalie explains: “Growing up with vitiligo was often very challenging. My teenage years were my worst because advertising and magazines had convinced me that there was such a thing as ‘ideal body types’ who were classified as ‘pretty’ or ‘beautiful’ and I simply didn’t fit into either category. This led to me developing a sense of hatred towards my skin. I became very uncomfortable with how I looked, lacked confidence and tried to avoid conversations in relation to my skin.”

Natalie’s experience of how her skin condition has affected her mental health and wellbeing, as a young person and an adult is all too common. Research carried out for Changing Faces found that children with a visible difference, like a skin condition, have reported an increase in feeling unhappy, from 30% in 2019 to 42% in 20211. Whilst research with adults found 51% citing that they have felt self-conscious or embarrassed as a result of their visible difference.

I became very uncomfortable with how I looked, lacked confidence and tried to avoid conversations in relation to my skin.

Natalie Ambersley

Finding mental health support

Despite research and the experiences of people like Natalie demonstrating a need for mental health support, there is still a lack of psychosocial support available to dermatology patients. A recent report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Skin, found that fewer than 5% of dermatology clinics across the UK provide any level of specialist mental health support for children and young people.

For Natalie, talking about her condition and getting support to build confidence and self-esteem provided a turning point. Natalie says: “For years, I felt like it was my skin that defined me without even considering that I was a person admired and loved by family and friends because of who I was.”

Changing Faces is the UK’s leading charity for anyone with a visible difference. They provide life-changing mental health, wellbeing and skin camouflage services, and work to transform understanding and acceptance of visible differences.