PTSD - part 2

It can be said that PTSD is the ‘sexy’ psychological disorder, it is more socially acceptable. It is almost like it is not your fault because it is the impact of the incident upon you rather than yourself…if that makes sense. For example since the earthquake in Pakistan around 40-60% of people involved have now been diagnosed with PTSD, this is huge uptake. I do feel that maybe a chunk of this percentage already had some form of psychological problem and were to ashamed to admit it however now its deemed as acceptable. This is not to say that those involved haven’t been through a huge amount of trauma.

I find it quite concerning, this need to shift blame or that it is shameful to have a problem. I found it good news today to hear that depression is now going to be treated as serious as heart disease on the NHS, however I think we often miss the point its not always how quick its treated etc its societies attitudes and stigmas. There are so many people out there who feel they cant speak out about their experiences and issues for fear of judgment to truly help each other and improve society we need to address these things first !

Quote of the Week...

“Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and trusting your intuition.”

Freeman Thomas

I think this is one of the hardest things you can do as a designer. To stare yourself in the face and dig down under that perfectly polished surface that you have to protect you. To analyse what you are doing is right? What do you believe? However it highlights that personal experience stands for a lot when it comes to design – something that i feel very strongly about. I believe you can’t design a product if you don’t live it and who you are designing for. If you don’t do this then you risk designing a product based on secondary research and preconceptions. There is only so much people will tell you in focus groups. This is where collaboration can also come in, we need to learn from others and their experiences as much as we need to share our own in the design process.

PTSD - a definition...

Ok so first things first what is post traumatic stress disorder? I had a really interesting meeting with a specialist in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) the other week. Professor David Alexander is one of the most highly regarded professionals in the UK in this field – and very lovely man I might add !

He explained to me that only around 10-18% of RTA (road traffic accidents) casualties get PTSD. PTSD is more commonly linked to larger catastrophic incidents such as earthquakes’ and the likes of the 9/11 bombings. He himself had not long come back from helping with the earthquake victims in India and also has a large wealth of experience in working with soldiers.

What he taught me was that there is a lot of confusion between what is known as PTSD and PTSS (post traumatic stress symptoms). PTSS consists mainly of 3 psychological pathogens these are:

1) Depression

2) Anxiety

3) Subsance abuse

Where PTSS crosses into PTSD is where there is the addition of other less controllable factors such as flash backs and hyper arousal. This is not to say that PTSS cannot have the same impact on a persons lifestyle. I suppose what I’m getting at here is that people are more willing to admit they have PTSD over any other mental issue.

Fixing mechanisms

I came across this new hand a wrist brace, ironically I then receive an email a day later from my lecturer also recommending I look at it so obviously great minds think alike =P

I love the way that it fixes on, the ability to customise it and make it your own automatically gives it an element of social acceptability. In addition its waterproof which means no more messing about with the dreaded ‘scuba Steve’ clear plastic bags when you want to wash!

The aspect of water sport/exercise could also make physiotherapy easier ie hydrotherapy as it helps to take weight off of the limbs so if you have a problems with walking it means you can focus more on what your legs are doing and less about staying upright or not falling over.

Just how inclusive are we?

I have to say that this is something that fascinates me with our current society. We have this need to label EVERYTHING – personally I think it is our way of making things easier to handle. In our growing multicultural society why is it that we still find it acceptable to place these labels? Especially in Britain there is this concept of being politically correct, I believe the new PC term for disability is ‘special need’ however when I asked others with impairment which term they preferred the common feeling was that ‘special need’ was more derogatory than disability or impaired !

There is plenty of ‘pro disability’ legislation about however its key focus is often on the built environment and does nothing to address the true route of the problem in society’s attitudes. So are we really an inclusive society or do we just like to pretend that we are!?

Video

here is a video i have prepared to help those understand what it i slike to live with an impirment. My aunt is disabled and told me that it is essential to have a sense of humour when less abled so i have tried to reflect this in the video. I have annotatded it with my thoughts and feelings about everyday issues that i face. Hopefully you will all enjoy it =)

Can sport be a motivational tool ?

This is an interesting concept for me as I was such an avid sporty person as you may have it that now I am unable to do anything its driving me nuts. I find myself pushing harder by thinking about getting back to the sorts I love. I know others who have been in a similar position but all of whom have been heavily involved in sport before their accident.

So how important is sport to the general public? Is sport more of a social tool? There is many a time I have been in the gym and there are small groups working together either walking and chatting on the treadmill, helping each other do weights or competing against each other on the cardio machines. Could this still be used as a form of encouragement? Could you harness the aspect of exercise and combine it with rehabilitation. Yes I am aware this is basically physiotherapy but what if you could have group physiotherapy in addition?

Quote of the Week...

“Contentment: The smother of invention.”

Ethel Mumford

I think this is the case in the NHS. They have implemented so many benchmarks and hierarchies that innovation simply can’t get through. They are starting to realise this however and open up more via projects with the Design Council and government schemes like The National Innovation Centre. The aim of these is to give a single point of entry to the system making the design process clearer and more transparent. So where can we go from here? How can you tell what everyone wants? Maybe they should provide focus groups, just like they provide guinea pig patients for medical students maybe those guinea pigs could also work with designers to help them understand the situation they are designing for !? Feedback please....

Quote of the Week...

“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.”

Jamie Paolinetti – digital media designer

I love this concept that we can do anything we can put our minds too. The concept of limitations could be limitations we impose on ourselves or are they imposed on us by society. We seem to have this need to put people in a box so that we know how to deal with them. However nobody deserves this. Alternatively maybe this can be interpreted into the products that we design. To act as a facilitator for others to learn and understand from. So for example with rehabilitation products reminding the user to push themselves and that they can do things, give them goals to aim for, give them something to strive at while reminding those around them they need that little bit more understanding or time to do a task.

Why do we need quality of life factors ?

This is a question which many may ask. The NHS’s performance needs to be measured and evaluated in a way which should not only take account of costs and benefits of those providing the health care but also of those receiving the health care!

The problem that arises with the term Quality of Life is that there are no set defined terms or methodology to measure these factors. As a result the whole topic area is a disputed one with more procedures to test, weigh and measure each procedures different results which then just leads to confusion.

There is no argument that Quality of Life factors could be an efficient and effective way to measure NHS’s output in terms of service it can demonstrate the fact that a treatment which can improve someone’s health physically can actually have a detrimental effect on a person’s psychological health.