Wound Awareness Week 2026 has wrapped – and what an extraordinary week it was. Under this year's theme, SOS: Save Our Skin!, Wounds Australia took the message about chronic wound prevention, recognition and treatment into communities across Australia, reaching consumers, clinicians, policymakers and the wider public. 

One of the highlights was the official launch of the Be Wound Aware Education Series in Hobart – a new suite of free online education designed to give Australians practical, trustworthy information about wound care at home, chronic wound warning signs, prevention and first aid essentials. 

The launch attracted national attention, including coverage by 7NEWS, helping us take wound awareness well beyond the wound care community and into Australian homes.

Read more about the Be Wound Aware Education Series launch. 

Engaging policymakers

Importantly, the week also provided valuable opportunities to engage directly with decision-makers and influential voices in policymaking. 

Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Rebecca White MP, Senator Kerrynne Liddle and Senator Carol Brown all took part in Wound Awareness Week activities in Melbourne and Hobart, helping keep chronic wounds – and the need for better prevention, education and access to evidence-based care – firmly on the national agenda. 

Taking our message national

Our message also travelled far beyond the major cities. Radio interviews were broadcast around the country, with particularly strong reach into regional and remote communities, where access to specialist wound care can be more challenging and awareness of the warning signs of chronic wounds is especially important. Listen to one of them.

Across Australia, supporters also brought Wound Awareness Week into their own workplaces and communities through morning teas and awareness activities. (Pictured top.) We loved seeing teams come together to start conversations about wound care, including Wound Awareness Week sponsor Smith+Nephew, Wounds Australia partner Savers Australia, not-for-profit aged care service provider Bolton Clarke, and more. 

Clinicians dedicated to upskilling

For health professionals, our free Lunch Bytes webinar series was another huge success. Across the week, well over 1,000 clinicians joined expert-led sessions covering oedema, nutrition and wound healing, patient education and self-care, prevention, and caring for periwound skin. The response reinforced the enormous appetite across the health workforce for accessible, practical and evidence-based wound education. Catch up on recordings.

Wound Awareness Week also created space for deeper discussion about one of Australia's most common and costly wound types. At our skin tears roundtable, clinicians, researchers and people with lived experience came together to explore how Australia can improve the prevention and management of skin tears, guided by Wound Awareness Week Ambassador Professor Fiona Wood AO. Read more about the skin tears roundtable. 

Thanks for your support

From national television and radio coverage to government engagement, clinical education, community events and the launch of new consumer resources, Wound Awareness Week 2026 showed what can happen when the wound care community comes together around a shared goal. A huge thank you to our members, partners, speakers, supporters and everyone who helped us spread the word. 

Wound Awareness Week may be over for another year – but the work to save skin, improve wound care and reduce the impact of chronic wounds continues every day.