Project Overview
Southern Region Delusional Parasitosis Working Group
Commodities
Target Pests
Practices
- Sustainable Communities: quality of life
Proposal abstract:
Delusional parasitosis (DP) is “a rare psychiatric disorder in which a person has the false and persistent belief of being infested by parasites (mites and lice), worms, insects, bacteria, or other small living organisms.” DP sufferers describe itchy, irritated or tingly skin with the sensation of “bugs” biting, stinging or crawling and may hallucinate seeing the suspected cause of the irritation. Scars, scabs, lacerations, wounds and other lesions result from the sufferer attempting to remove the suspected parasites from their skin. DP sufferers go to extremes trying to rid their home and body of parasites. They often apply pesticides, cleaners and other chemicals unnecessarily and unsafely to unlisted sites on the pesticide label, including themselves, family and their pets. Extension agents, pest management professionals and entomologists lack the training to assist these DP sufferers. These professionals indicate that DP puts an exceptional strain on them as they feel great empathy for their clientele but are frustrated with their response and lack of resources to direct their clientele toward others who may help. Working with DP sufferers requires more time and interactions than general inquiries and can be risky. Reviewing the numerous specimens submitted per case puts the identifier at risk from blood-borne pathogens if they aren’t using appropriate personal protective equipment. In addition, DP sufferers are often agitated and desperate to find the cause of their symptoms and may threaten the professional attempting to assist. The southern region and the nation’s entomologists, Extension agents and pest management professionals need reliable resources and standardized procedures to interact with DP sufferers safely and treat them with respect and fairness while helping the sufferer resolve their condition.
In this grant, we will use a One Health approach, including a psychologist and psychiatrist along with Extension entomologists and pest management professional, to maintain and enhance sustainable IPM infrastructure by better equipping the Extension agents, entomologists and pest management professionals in the southern region to handle suspected delusional parasitosis by
1) creating a Southern Region Delusional Parasitosis Working Group that will define and prioritize needs to resolve DP better,
2) developing outputs to describe DP and how entomology, Extension, and pest management professionals can assist DP sufferers safely, caringly and respectfully to lead them toward a resolution of the condition, and
3) delivering these DP materials to assist these professionals with cases.
Project objectives from proposal:
| Planned Outputs
What you plan on doing |
Anticipated Outcomes
What changes are expected to occur as a result |
Problem or priority targeted
What situation you are |
| Create Working Group | ||
| Create a delusional parasitosis working group (SR DP WG) composed of key personnel and meet in-person to:
· define its mission to lead to a regional benefit; |
A mission statement will guide the group in its activities | No working groups exist in the southern region to address handling DP cases. This proposal addresses projects that improve delivery of IPM information by:
? Developing new or improving/implementing existing programs ? Increased awareness of collaboration potential and benefits for working group (WG) members, especially early career members ? Increased awareness of regional DP resources benefits for working group (WG) members, especially early career members ? Increased WG awareness of additional prioritized needs to help resolve DP |
| · establish communications and collaboration mechanisms | Clearly defined lines of communication will ease communication and set expectations. Monthly communications will keep the group engaged in the overall mission | |
| · determine DP resources in each state and select those with most appeal to WG | A collection of DP resources will ease the selection of the best to modify into a regional product | |
| · and identify and prioritize needs | Once current resources are recognized, the group can decide on the greatest need to assist professionals in handling DP cases | |
| Develop Educational Materials | ||
| Use Tennessee or best Southern Region examples of each of the following to develop a Southern Region digital and print version:
· simple fact sheet on potential causes of skin irritations |
A simple fact sheet will explain possible causes of itchy, irritated skin, including small pests that may cause these sensations and DP | This fact sheet will support DP suffers and those who handle suspected cases.
SERA3: Creating new or updating existing resources to address stakeholder needs |
| · checklist of potential irritated skin causes | DP sufferers will use this self-contained checklist of many of the potential causes of itchy, tingly or irritated skin | The checklist offers DP sufferers alternative options besides insects for the causes of their irritated skin and addresses needs documented in the TN survey. |
| · protocol for county Extension agent (Ag & FCS) to respond to suspected DP cases (private site) | This protocol will provide agents with step-by-step instructions for safely handling inquiries/office visits | The top 3 requested protocols of the TN survey were related to protecting professionals during DP encounters. This protocol addresses this need. |
| · other priority educational materials | These will depend on the priorities established by the WG | These products will depend on the priorities established by the WG |
| · Create a digital manual with in-depth explanations of the three publications listed above | A single manual will provide all information for agents to deal with DP encounters in more details than provided in the individual documents | Using undergraduates to assist each subcommittee to develop outputs backs the National IPM Roadmap to support IPM education programs at US universities to ensure training for the next generation of IPM scientists and practitioners |
| Deliver Educational Materials | ||
| Deliver training on DP and explain the materials to Extension agents and PMPs | Agents and PMPs will understand DP and be able to safely interact with DP sufferers | SERA3: Support for training of private sector IPM professionals (pest control technicians, etc) and
Support for IPM training for county and regional extension personnel. |
