Camarilla has this month supported Pelican & Respond Healthcare in launching new signage to be used on accessible public toilets, aimed at educating the public and garnering greater understanding of the needs of people living with hidden illnesses such as a stoma; and Cardiff Council is the first Local Authority in Wales to pilot the signage.
Camarilla secured widespread media coverage including this on ITV Wales
Designed and developed by students at Cardiff Metropolitan University studying BA Graphic Communication Level 6, and as part of their Design for Real Life project, the students have created new signage under the banner #BeTheChange. The signage, which is a broken circle aimed at encouraging entry is designed to be inclusive and supportive of all people living with hidden illnesses, be it Alzheimer’s, a stoma, anxiety or any other of the conditions accounting for the 92% of people who need to use an accessible toilet but don’t have a visible illness.
The drive to create new signage came from a group of people from across South Wales living with a stoma, an opening in the abdomen that can be connected to either your digestive or urinary system to allow waste (urine or faeces) to be diverted out of your body and collected in a bag after part or all of the bowel is removed due to disease or obstruction. They found there was ‘a lack of understanding’, and ‘a need to educate’ society in order to ‘avoid embarrassing situations’. They therefore formed an action group, #BeTheChange Voices, joined forces and called for changes to be made within society, with the help of Cardiff based Pelican Healthcare, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of disposable medical products in the UK and Ireland healthcare markets, and its sister company Respond Healthcare, specialists in stoma and continence care, providing a prescription dispensing service throughout the UK.