Together we can make a difference on World Psoriasis Day

As a proud supporter of World Psoriasis Day, UCB sat down with Frida Dunger Johnsson, Executive Director of the International Federation of Psoriasis Associations (IFPA), to learn more about the importance of World Psoriasis Day and how people can unite on October 29 to show their support.

“Together with our members, we share the vision of a future where all people living with psoriatic disease enjoy good health and wellbeing, free from stigma and preventable disability and comorbidities,” explains Frida. Reflecting further on IFPA’s mission, Frida confirms it is to “unite, strengthen and lead the global community to improve the lives of all people affected.” Each year on World Psoriasis Day the global community follows IFPA in this mission, coming together to raise awareness and call for action in support of people living with psoriatic disease.

As the only global organization representing and uniting all people living with psoriatic disease, IFPA continuously works to highlight unmet needs, and recently formulated five strategic goals to generate and share evidence to inform change.

According to Frida the most prominent unmet needs faced by patients with psoriatic disease relate to:

• Early diagnosis of psoriatic disease
• Equal access to treatment, specialists and individualized care
• Training for healthcare practitioners to ensure adequate understanding of the physical, emotional, economic and social burden of the disease, as well as the impact on an individual’s quality of life
• Multidisciplinary care to identify and manage common comorbidities
• Awareness of stigmatization and discrimination.

Raising awareness is an important step towards combatting these challenges and making a meaningful difference to peoples’ lives. “We aim to make the world aware of psoriatic disease and the effect it has on an individual’s life, spread information and dispel common misconceptions,” Frida added.

In line with this year’s theme for World Psoriasis Day, ‘United’, IFPA is uniting individuals, organizations and IFPA partners from all countries and backgrounds to speak out from a common platform. In doing so, it hopes to empower ministers, governments, and decision-makers to step up their efforts to provide better access to treatment and care for people living with psoriatic disease. “World Psoriasis Day is a powerful opportunity to mobilize advocacy and stand united with the global community to unleash loud action and achieve targeted breakthroughs,” Frida remarked.

There are many ways to support IFPA’s initiatives on World Psoriasis Day, whether you are affected by psoriatic disease or not. Supporters can visit psoriasisday.org to add details of planned World Psoriasis Day activities to the global map, create their own World Psoriasis Day graphics using IFPA’s image generator, find out about the IFPA World Psoriasis Day Petition or simply interact on social media and join the conversation using #WorldPsoriasisDay. Frida concludes, “Any action you take brings us closer to our vision and, together, we can drive positive change for people living with psoriatic disease.”