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Keeping Positive During a Pandemic Aesthetics celebrates the valuable actions of those in the community throughout the COVID-19 crisis In times of crisis, it’s easy to get yourself down and become wrapped up in a negative spiral, especially with so much disheartening media coverage circulating every day. While the last month has been particularly challenging for not only the aesthetics community but the whole country, it has shone a light on the caring and supportive nature of the people in our industry. From practitioners

returning to the NHS, distributors donating products, and personal protective equipment (PPE) fundraising efforts, practitioners and aesthetic companies have been uniting to combat this global crisis. To help keep your spirits up, Aesthetics wants to remind everyone of all the hard work our specialty has put in over the last few weeks and bring a smile to your faces.

Practitioners Equipment donations Aesthetic practitioner and clinic owner Dr Nestor Demosthenous has set up a Go Fund Me page, aimed at raising money to buy more essential PPE for the NHS. Any residual funds will be distributed to medical charities. Dr Demosthenous says, “Having spent many years in surgical training within the NHS, I know the NHS well. I understand the sacrifices my colleagues are currently making, the fear, the bravery and the compassion filling our hospitals. I have closed my clinic doors temporarily, to focus efforts on supporting my NHS colleagues during these unprecedented times. While I have applied to NHS Scotland ‘COVID-19 recruitment’, awaiting to be placed where appropriate, I have decided to help in other ways too. With the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly escalating, I feel it is essential that we help our NHS Lothian colleagues to continue to practice safely at such a critical time.” Permanent makeup artist, medical tattooist and trainer, Karen Betts, is donating 100,000 residual stock items to support NHS staff and care homes locally and across the UK. She comments, “After visiting my warehouse earlier this week to evaluate our stock, I realised we had a huge number of face masks, gloves, hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes. We are in unprecedented times and anything that can even slightly ease the worry and stress many are facing is hugely important, and I urge others to do the same, no matter how big or small, we can all make a difference.” Dr Qian Xu has started a JustGiving page in order to raise funds to provide proper respirators for frontline staff. Dr Xu explains, The lack of PPE led me to catch the virus myself, and after making a recovery from it, I decided to do more to help protect others on the frontline. This is why I set up a fundraising campaign to buy better face masks for those working in high risk areas. I currently have 5,000 N95 masks en route to the UK. About 750 of those are funded by my campaign and will be directly donated to those in need.” Transforming clinics Illuminate Skin Clinic has transformed into a GP service for general health problems. Every day there will be three non-profit appointments available for members of the community on low incomes, and the clinic will also be holding free video consultations. Clinic owner, Dr Sophie Shotter comments, “When it became clear how serious the coronavirus pandemic was becoming, I wanted to find a way we could serve the community. It was becoming clear that GP services were going to be under immense pressure, and members of the public were going to struggle to access their usual

Educating children Since the start of the pandemic, aesthetic and general practitioner Dr Simi Adedeji started a YouTube channel with patient education about COVID-19 at the fore. One of her most popular videos includes the best ways to teach your children about coronavirus – explaining the disease in simple terms for them to understand whilst still being entertained. She says, “I had a YouTube channel before COVID-19, where I discussed skin, women’s health and wellbeing and medical aesthetics. With COVID-19 came the opportunity for me to educate about an extremely important health issue. I started with factual knowledge videos and updates and then created a children’s video explaining coronavirus to preschool and school-aged children once it became clear that children were also experiencing anxiety from the new world and new rules around them. I’ve had incredible feedback from the videos including from the public, parents and schools who have used my video to help their children understand the situation better.”

Reproduced from Aesthetics | Volume 7/Issue 6 - May 2020