100 Changemakers for 100 days of BFRB Awareness
If you told me six months ago that I would want to study stigmatizing attitudes towards people with skin-picking disorder for my graduate school capstone project, I might have laughed. While BFRBs have been part of my life for almost as long as I can remember, it is only recently that I have felt comfortable talking about them.
This past spring, I took a week-long intensive course on mental health diagnostics, and the professor did not mention BFRBs at all. It was a turning point for me. If our condition is not being taught in a graduate-level social work program, who is learning about BFRBs?
I decided to focus my research on the presence of stigma towards people with skin-picking held by healthcare professional students. Whether training to be a primary care physician, therapist, or dentist, all healthcare students will one day encounter a patient with BFRBs. We make up approximately 5% of the U.S. population after all!
Despite this reality, misunderstanding is rampant. Less than half of people with BFRBs seek psychiatric treatment due to anticipated stigma. Licensed mental health practitioners report relatively low awareness of BFRBs. Over half of dermatologists and psychiatrists are unaware of psychological resources for people with skin-picking disorder. Add to this, the reality that experiencing stigma from healthcare providers can exacerbate negative mental health and deter people from treatment.
By identifying the key misconceptions held by healthcare professionals in training, I ultimately hope to develop more effective and targeted psycho-education tools to help break the cycle of stigma and ensure that members of our community can access the information and care they deserve.
Support BFRB Changemakers
BFRB Changemakers supports BFRB healing through community. Our mission is 3-fold:
- raise awareness of debilitating conditions of Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs) such as compulsive hair pulling (trichtotillomania), nail biting (onychophagia), and skin picking (dermatillomania),
- increase and improve access to care, and
- advance community recovery.
Through the BFRB Changemakers Training Academy we strive to increase access to care by offering Continuing Education training to new and seasoned mental health treatment professionals.
BFRB Changemakers is a 501c3 non-profit (EIN #93-1544492). Please make a donation to support these efforts!
