Leprosy
Mailing List, September 21st, 2008
Ref.: "Leprosy,
society and stigma”.
From: Ryan T,
Oxford
,
UK
Dear
Salvatore,
I refer to Dr
Singh request about a << model
to study the stigma of leprosy patients (e.g. a theoretical framework
or any scale to measure stigma >>. (LML Sept. 15th,
2008).
This request
should be easily answered by a Google search or a glance through
leprosy journals, but I want to emphasise that the aspect of being
unwelcome in society is shared by other skin diseases such as
psoriasis, vitiligo, and elephantiasis which are also good models.
It was also found to be a feature of other conditions such as
incontinence or even being wheel chair bound so it will do
contemporary leprosy studies no favour if the proposed study is
confined to leprosy. The
Quality of Life movement was much improved by the WHO changes in
classification that included participation as a factor requiring
measurement.
I will post of some reprints to Dr Singh.
Terence Ryan
