Putting our best foot forward for #foothealthmonth
As you may or may not know, May is Foot Health Month. For the Socks 4 Souls Canada team, foot health is pretty important to us. In fact, it’s right there in our tagline:
The first step is socks.
This is something we keep to heart throughout the year, not just in Winter. We’re focused on helping unhoused people in the GTA maintain good foot health, so that they can hopefully step out of homelessness and into stable housing, jobs, and an improved life.
Foot Health Month
This month across all our social channels and on our blog, we’ll be focusing on telling you why foot health is so important, especially for people experiencing homelessness.
We’ll be bringing you foot health facts throughout this month to help emphasize why we believe in putting our best foot forward to encourage, promote, and maintain foot health amongst Toronto’s unhoused people by ensuring that they have clean, fresh socks throughout the year.
Foot health amongst unhoused people
People experiencing homelessness are more likely to suffer ongoing foot health issues, but less likely to be able to receive treatment. According to recent studies, unhoused people are:
- 65% more likely to suffer from foot-related health conditions
- Nearly twice as likely to suffer from frostbite in the winter
- Over 40% more likely to need above and beyond treats such as amputation if they have other medical conditions such as diabetes
If an unhoused person has an ongoing medical issue, such as problems with their feet or mobility, they will have difficulty accessing life-saving services such as:
- Shelters/housing
- Cooling/warming shelters
- Medical services
- Food services
Without access to these essential services, their health can worsen and deteriorate, leaving them even less unable to get the help they so vitally need. This is especially dangerous in a country such as Canada, which can experience extreme weather in the summer and winter.
How you can help
Keep an eye out for updates on our social channels, and remember: you can help. There are so many things you can do to help us keep people experiencing homelessness in Toronto on their feet:
- Donate directly – even a penny helps!
- Run a sock drive
- Get sponsored for your own fundraising event!
If you’re doing anything this month to help us, please tag us on social using #foothealthmonth! We’d love to hear from you!
Coming up…
We’ll be bringing you more facts, and even some expert opinions on how you can take care of your own foot health, as we progress through May. Keep an eye on our blog and our social channels for more information!
We look forward to bringing you on our Foot Health Month journey.