Wound Care

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What are Skin Tears?

Skin tears are traumatic wounds that usually occur in fragile or vulnerable skin (e.g., in aged or very young skin) our skin becomes thin, fragile and easily to tears leading to breakdown and increasing risk for infection.
A recent study in Ontario suggests that over 20% of residents in long term care will develop a skin tear at any point of their stay.
They can be painful wounds, affecting quality of life, causing distress and increasing the chance of and long hospitalization stay.
There are a variety of factors leading to the development of this type of skin breakdown include blunt trauma, falls, poor handling, equipment injury or removal of adherent dressings.
Skin tears can occur on any part of the body but are common on the upper and lower limbs or the dorsal side of the hands.
If you want to learn more about prevention of skin tears click here.

Our team of wound care specialists are highly skilled in assessment, prevention, classification and management of skin tears.
We will identify risk factors that place individuals at high risk to develop this type of wounds and develop a care plan for prevention and management.
The most important is to make sure our clients are on the right care pathway to achieve wound healing and avoid further skin damage and wound deterioration.
Our collaborative approach ensures individuals and their caregivers’ needs, concerns and preferences are taken into consideration.
We engage our clients and caregivers in self-care for prevention and management of symptoms that leads to wound healing.

In our first appointment a comprehensive assessment will be done to identify individuals needs and address risk factors affecting healing and develop a personalized care plan based on best practices guidelines for skin tears management.
Individuals and caregivers learn about our collaborative approach and will have our ongoing support through our virtual platform and app.
Through our app they will be able to upload photos of the wounds any time, ask questions and connect with us from the comfort of their home.
We provide expert recommendations and ongoing follow-ups to individuals and caregivers until wound closure.