Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) May 29, 2014
Each year 8 million children in the United States (including nearly 1 million Hispanic children) suffer an injury that requires emergency room care or a hospital stay. As part of National Trauma Awareness Month, a team of experts at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) today launched a new Spanish-language website, AfterTheInjury.org/es, to help Spanish-speaking parents help their children recover after an injury. On the site, parents can watch brief videos, download tip sheets, and create a personalized care plan based on their child’s individual situation. The website is a comprehensive free resource for parents, developed by a team of pediatricians, psychologists, trauma surgeons and trauma nurses, based on more than a decade of research on childhood injury and its emotional effect on kids and their parents.
“With all the doctors and nurses who treat a child when he or she is first hurt, it’s still parents who play the most important role in their child’s physical and emotional recovery,” says Flaura Koplin Winston, MD, PhD, a pediatrician, director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention and co-developer of the English and Spanish websites. “Medical care is often brief, and parents may have questions later and not know where to turn. We created this site, with the guidance of parents, to help them find the information they want, exactly when they need it.”
Researchers at CHOP have developed and tested ways to identify traumatic stress reactions in Spanish- and English-speaking children. Based on the latest research, the team has created a wide range of Spanish and English tip sheets for children and parents about dealing with injury, illness, and being in the hospital.
“There is a particular need for resources in Spanish,” says Nancy Kassam-Adams, PhD, a psychologist, director of the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at CHOP and co-developer of the Spanish and English websites. “We designed AfterTheInjury.org/es to help Spanish-speaking parents know what to expect and how to help their child.”
The new website fills a gap for families after an injury. A growing number of Spanish-speaking families in the US look for health and parenting information online. AfterTheInjury.org/es offers parents easy access to expert information, tips, and practical tools in Spanish. The website includes expert advice on everything from how to handle a hospital visit, to cast care and pain management, to what to do if a child is having nightmares after an accident. The site addresses topics such as:
- Injury care and pain management for children
- How to use crutches and care for a cast
- Caring for head and abdominal injuries
- How to handle an emergency room visit or time in the hospital
- Understanding children’s emotional reactions to injury
- How to recognize traumatic stress reactions and when to get additional help
- How to talk with your child about an injury or accident
- Help for parents dealing with their own reactions to a child’s injury
The English version of AfterTheInjury.org has won awards for its content and design. For more information about emotional reactions to injury or to download resources and tip sheets, visit AfterTheInjury.org/es or AfterTheInjury.org.
About The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was established in 1996 to advance the safety and health of children, adolescents, and young adults through comprehensive research that encompasses before-the-injury prevention to after-the-injury healing. The Center's multidisciplinary research team, with expertise in the Behavioral Sciences; Medicine; Engineering; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Human Factors; Public Health; and Communications, translates rigorous scientific research into practical tools and guidelines for families, professionals, and policymakers. For more information on the Center and its research initiatives, visit injury.research.chop.edu.
About The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress
The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (CPTS) was founded in 2002 to address medical trauma in the lives of children and families. CPTS is located at two of the premier children’s hospitals in the country: The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Nemours A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children. CPTS is a partner in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). CPTS seeks to increase awareness among healthcare providers of medical traumatic stress (traumatic stress related to medical events). CPTS develops and promotes empirically based screening and intervention for ill or injured children and their families, and provides training to medical and mental health providers about medical traumatic stress. The Center creates patient education tools in English and Spanish. For more information on CPTS, visit HealthCareToolbox.org.
SOURCE The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
RELATED LINKS
http://bit.ly/1ovtOmj
http://injury.research.chop.edu
http://www.teendriversource.org
AfterTheInjury.org
healthcaretoolbox.org
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