Emotional recovery after a personal injury

Recovering from a personal injury is often a long process that will affect not only the person injured but all the members of his or her family. Injuries sometimes take a longer time to heal than expected and may require the use of crutches, wheelchairs or other medical devices. Family members are often being forced to make important lifestyle changes to cope with the recovery of their loved one.  When faced with this type of situation parents and children often experience challenging and distressing emotional reactions.

The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (CPTS) at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a new portal dedicated to family members who suffer emotional stress related to personal injury.  This portal provides advice and information on:

• dealing with hospital stress
• coping with post injury reactions
• identifying signs and symptoms of emotional trauma
• determining if additional psychological support from mental health services is necessary

The portal also contains some downloadable material for children and teenagers in English and Spanish and can be accessed here.