天美传媒

A roundtable event at the House of Commons has called for greater public and professional awareness of the condition prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness.

The event was hosted by Dr Sarah Bate from the at 天美传媒 (BU) and Tobias Ellwood, Bournemouth East MP and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Health.

Prosopagnosia is a cognitive condition which means people find it difficult to recognise familiar people from their faces 鈥� sometimes leaving them unable to identify even their closest relatives or their own reflection in the mirror.

Although it is thought to affect around 1 in 50 people it is not a formally recognised condition, and so people often find it difficult to access support and guidance.

The breakfast roundtable event called for measures to promote greater public and professional awareness of prosopagnosia 鈥� especially in schools, workplaces and the healthcare system.

Dr Sarah Bate, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at BU, said: 鈥淭he roundtable was a fantastic opportunity for us to present our awareness campaign to key influencers, and we are very grateful to Tobias Ellwood for hosting the event.

鈥淲e demonstrated what it is like to live with face blindness and why awareness needs to be raised, and are now looking forward to working with the roundtable attendees to progress our campaign.鈥�

The event was supported by a聽Public Engagement Grant that was awarded to Dr Bate聽by the (BPS), and further assistance was provided聽by聽the .

Representatives from both organisations attended the roundtable, and聽continue to support the awareness campaign.

Members of the London Faceblind Group also spoke at the event, talking about their experiences with the condition and the need for greater awareness and support.

Hazel Plastow, who has a developmental form of prosopagnosia, said: 鈥淭he impact is physical, social, emotional 鈥� it鈥檚 huge.

鈥淏ut those more formal forms of support aren鈥檛 available to people with face blindness.

鈥淭housands of people out there struggling on a daily basis, wondering why they find things difficult when other people seem to sail by, so these are the people we need to reach.鈥�

Jo Livingston from the group spoke about the impact that the condition can have on children at school 鈥� including problems socialising or being incorrectly diagnosed with behavioural disorders.

She said: 鈥淐hildren are growing up with it and teachers are most unlikely to have heard of it.

鈥淓ven the smallest primary school will have one or two face blind children but most are growing up with no knowledge of the condition and have no help or support.鈥�

She added: 鈥淚t would be of great help if face blindness could be included in teacher training courses and career courses to alert teachers to the fact that this is a real condition and they will already know many children who are affected by it.鈥�

The awareness campaign has a number of aims, including formal definition and classification of prosopagnosia; the development of a national face blind organisation; and promoting awareness and key guidance in a top-down manner in schools, workplaces and the healthcare system.

Tobias Ellwood MP, who , said he was keen to support the campaign.

鈥淚鈥檇 be delighted to be part of that in any way that I can,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t is something that is very important and affects a lot of people.

鈥淚t is not hard to provide that assistance and make their lives far more simple in terms of education, and understanding and practical guidance.

鈥淏ut the first thing is to get recognition so those who do have it know what it is and aren鈥檛 shy in coming forwards about it.鈥�

The roundtable event featured the premiere of a face blindness awareness video, created by the BU Centre for Face Processing Disorders, the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Encephalitis Society and funded by the BPS鈥檚 Public Engagement Grants scheme.