Everyone has a role in ensuring our allergic and eczema children’s safety and wellbeing, what’s yours?
Dear visitors,
SPEAK has now been formalised into the non-profit – Eczema and Allergy Support Foundation Limited. As chairperson, my first letter conveys my hopes and dreams for the allergic and eczema community in Singapore and what we want to achieve as a non-profit in 2021 and beyond.
Collaborative doctor-and-parent relationships built on mutual trust, respect, and evidence
A healthy patient-and-doctor relationship can improve the outcomes of our allergic and eczema children, and reduce overall healthcare costs when parents and caregivers are empowered with information.
Working together, doctors can take time to listen closely to their patients’ and caregivers’ concerns, and caregivers can learn to better observe and relate to doctors their observations during regular check-ins and follow-ups.
As a way to combat unsubstantiated non-evidence-based medicine so common in these chronic conditions, accurate and reliable information about childhood eczema and allergies should be readily and easily accessible to parents and caregivers.
SPEAK aims to promote a curious and positive attitude among parents in approaching their doctor’s advice and empower parents in asking productive questions. It also promotes reliance on evidence-based knowledge as the first line of defence in battling childhood allergies and eczema.
Safe and nurturing learning environment for allergic and eczema children to thrive in
As a mother, I imagine a future where I won’t feel anxious about my allergic son having an accidental exposure in school or receiving a call from his teacher worrying it’s an anaphylactic episode. It puts parents at ease when school staff can be trusted and relied on to keep him away from his allergens and respond appropriately in an emergency allergic situation.
Allergic and eczema children too deserve a conducive and inclusive environment to learn and play. Teachers can play a role in finding daily opportunities to educate and teach children to be kind to one another and embrace differences as part of what makes them special.
Mental health support for parents and caregivers
Caregiving for a child with allergies and eczema can bring on stress in many ways — meeting growth milestones, feeling triggered by unwanted skin care advice, and feeling disappointed when the treatment isn’t working.
Parents and caregivers don’t have to feel like they are failing.
A close-knit support group of an “allergy squad”, filled with people who will lift me when I am down, and let me vent but will gently nudge me towards objective solutions to my problems can provide invaluable emotional support.
Empathetic community, especially in the F&B industry
There is a full spectrum of symptoms and needs to allergies and eczema.
I imagine a dining experience where restaurants will not turn us away or tell us to eat at our own risk, and understand the risk of cross-contamination and how it will land some children in the emergency room.
Proper allergen labelling on food products which can be confidently relied on for accurate allergen risks.
My journey has been peppered with many struggles over the past 5 years which I’ve endured and overcome one by one for my family’s sake and Corey’s. Sharing my journey has resonated with many and connected me to them, which has resulted in our closed community of almost 2,000 people in Singapore Parents of Eczema and Allergy Kids (SPEAK).
Now, SPEAK is a registered non-profit, and we want to encourage conversations that can bring about real change to the problems the allergic and eczema community face. We seek opportunities to engage stakeholders to improve the psychosocial needs of the community, especially for higher-risk children who cannot speak for themselves.
Our kids matter. Their health and safety matter. Our parental emotional wellbeing matters. Our medical professionals’ opinions matter.
Everyone has a role in ensuring our allergic and eczema children’s safety and wellbeing, what’s yours?
Sincerely,
Amanda Chan,
SPEAK Founder & Chairperson
Let’s #SPEAKoutforallergies and #SPEAKoutforeczema and make our imaginations a reality.
Look out for activities SPEAK is organising this year and join us to see how you can get involved and contribute to improving the quality of lives for our allergic and eczema children.
SPEAK aims to build an infrastructure for better conversations, better collaboration between patients/caregivers, the healthcare community and policy makers and industry partners in Singapore and beyond.
