The meaning of the Woundieverse by Gary Bain
I have been very fortunate to have spent nearly 40 years interacting with people who experience and live with wounds. Some individuals have a relatively simple and straight-forward pathway towards healing. Others encounter the exact opposite, enduring wounds which significantly lower their quality of life.
Complex, chronic and often undiagnosed wounds force people to endure issues such as pain, social isolation, mental ill-health, financial harm, loss of function and physical capability. These problems also negatively impact upon loved ones and those who cohabitate with persons living with wounds. This is the “dark” side of the Woundieverse.
The bright side is that the Woundieverse is increasingly being filled with professionals who offer knowledge, leadership, clinical expertise and compassion, all of which is directed at meeting the challenges brought about by wounds and their hard-to-heal variants. These individuals are our “stars”. The wound healing organisations our “constellations”.
It seems that the Woundiverse works best when the patient and their significant others are placed at the centre of care. Where appropriate and realistic, they are empowered to be goal setters and decision makers thereby determining expectations that their team can interact and work with. As the “stars” bring their unique skills to bear and the “constellations” support through information, policy and procedural guidance, a glorious “galaxy” evolves.
The “galaxy” is something of beauty, colour and richness. It is dynamic, flexible, adaptive, cooperative and inclusive. Yet is always focused on its core, that person with a wound.
In my mind, the Woundieverse is a place of giving, sharing, learning and re-learning. It’s base is science, research and evidence. It’s actions are goal driven, informed by comprehensive and perpetual assessment. Measurement and quantification describe the value of intervention. Repetitive evaluation is the Woundieverse’s method of orientation.
The Woundieverse is not a place of hierarchy, professional silos nor ego. It belongs to all of us and we each have a contribution to make within it. Just as a Supernova, for a while our light will shine bright but as it inevitably fades, so its brilliance must be replaced by another. Our Woundieverse must then be dedicated to teaching and the development of others who seek to uphold what it stands for, knowing always that it is the well-being of those confronting complex wounds who are the purpose of our existence.