About Societi

Societi was established in 2015 as an organisation to raise awareness of Kawasaki Disease  – a disease which affects hundreds of children in the UK each year. Societi is an influencing and policy shaping organisation which works through partnerships to drive transformational change in awareness across the UK, about Kawasaki Disease.

Progress in understanding Kawasaki Disease has been severely hampered by poor levels of awareness, a lack of investment and a lack of essential research in the UK. Kawasaki Disease is a medical emergency and we are working to get it recognised!

Children affected by Kawasaki Disease have a much improved chance of a good recovery with quick diagnosis and rapid treatment. By raising awareness of Kawasaki Disease we aim to ensure children receive prompt diagnosis, urgent treatment and appropriate long term care.

Awareness – Our Number 1  Priority

Our ambition is that EVERY parent, EVERY doctor – and EVERYONE knows Kawasaki Disease.  You’ll find more information throughout our website on our awareness work. 

Here’s our awareness animation – a video designed to help get Kawasaki Disease known and provide vital information about this serious childhood illness.  We are proud to say it is being used in hospitals, GP surgeries, to help deliver training in schools and conferences too.

Please share this animation if you can and help us share knowledge about Kawasaki Disease – building and sharing knowledge is the most important step we can take to make change happen.

 

Actively pursuing change

In the UK, children affected by Kawasaki Disease today face the same poor prospects in terms of outcomes as they did 20 years ago.  We want to change that.

What drives us

We are an influencing and policy shaping organisation.  We want to see urgently needed research happen and we pursue changing policy and clinical practice for Kawasaki Disease across the UK.  Not enough is known about Kawasaki Disease, its symptoms or its treatment. Long term care for affected families is limited. Many agencies, doctors and parents are unaware of the disease. We want to change this.

Perceived once as a rare illness, this is an outdated idea which we are working to change. This misunderstanding hampers UK research into Kawasaki Disease which is stifled by lack of funds. It also hampers clinical resource allocation for treatments and long term clinical support that research shows families need. A lack of awareness of the true incidence of Kawasaki Disease among ‘front line’ clinicians needs to be addressed, in order for Kawasaki Disease to be considered as a possible diagnosis at an early stage.

We want all clinicians dealing with children to‘THINK Kawasaki Disease’  if they see a child with persistent fever plus any two or more symptoms of Kawasaki Disease.  We need doctors to EXPECT to see it – and be READY to treat Kawasaki Disease.