Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Helping Children Recover from Injury Stress
The World Health Organization has information available to help parents deal with the traumatic stress of their children’s injuries. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, parents can help their injured children by:
- assessing and managing the pain caused by the injury
- determining if the injury will have an ongoing traumatic stress effect on their child
- watch for whether their child gets upset if reminded of the injury or won’t talk about it or startles easily by sudden noises
- parents should ask their child if they’re scared or upset
Pediatric pain assessment
Parents can measure the child’s distress by using the hospital’s pediatric pain assessment:
- ask how is the pain right now
- what was the worst pain
- what worries them the most
- has anything else been scary or upsetting
What parents can do to help with distress is provide the child with as much control as possible. They should understand what is about to happen, children should have a say in what is about to happen, and have some control over pain management.
Pain management protocol
What parents can do to assess and treat their child’s pain is to use the hospital’s pain management protocol. That includes:
- explain the diagnosis or procedure
- ask the child to say it back to see how well they understand
- give them accurate information
- explain it in words and ideas they will understand
- provide reassurance and realistic hope
- let them know there are many people working together to help
- watch for grief and loss
- use resources to help the child
Providing emotional support
Parents should:
- be with their child at the hospital
- encourage the child to talk about their worries
- be the ones to explain the situation to the child
- help the child stay in touch with friends through e-mail and phone calls
- help the child with normal activities like watching videos, play time, visits with family
Parents should also be aware of the effects of the injury on the family and siblings, whether people are getting meals and sleep. Parents need to determine what other stressors are affecting the family:
- money problems
- language differences
- insurance
- medical bills
- housing
- childcare
Parents should make sure they provide for the emotional needs of all family members, not just the injured child. By being aware of all of these issues parents can significantly improve their child's recovery.
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