The Center for Injury Research and Prevention and the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have developed evidence-based pediatric traumatic stress resources, including websites for parents and pediatric healthcare providers to help children emotionally recover after injury. To ensure these resources are useful in supporting children, parents and pediatric healthcare providers have been involved in the development every step of the way.

Evidence-Based Resources

Resources For Families

AfterTheInjury.org

The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at CHOP spent a decade creating this award-winning site to help parents understand their children's emotional reactions to injury and trauma. AfterTheInjury gives parents the tools they need to help their child emotionally recover after an injury.

AfterTheInjury.org/es

The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at CHOP spent a decade creating this award-winning site in Spanish to help parents understand their children's emotional reactions to injury. AfterTheInjury.org/es gives parents the tools they need to help their child emotionally recover after an injury.

Healthcare Toolbox: Parent and Child Tip Sheets and Workbooks

The experts behind HealthCareToolbox.org and AfterTheInjury.org have developed printable tip sheets and workbooks for parents and children that provide basic information on positive recovery, self-care, and common reactions to injury. Most are available in both English and Spanish. 

HealthcareToolbox: Family Resource Topics  

Coping with stress reactions is common after a serious illness, injury, or a hospital stay. Parents might notice that family members feel stressed about different parts of the illness or injury: including difficulties with sleep, siblings, and returning to school. HealthcareToolbox’s “For Patients and Families” section includes evidence-based resources for families across a myriad of issues that families may experience related to medical traumatic stress.  

Resources For Pediatric Healthcare ProvidersView

HealthCareToolbox.org

Pediatric healthcare providers have the unique opportunity to intervene, and often times prevent, many adverse health outcomes, including medical traumatic stress. When a child is injured or diagnosed with an illness, all family members are at risk for traumatic stress symptoms. Unfortunately the level of distress experienced is often not apparent during interactions focused on medical treatment. With regular screening for pediatric medical traumatic stress, healthcare providers assist with the critical step of identifying families who would benefit from additional psychosocial support beyond trauma-informed care. The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress has developed trauma-informed care tools for screening, assessment, and intervention to prevent pediatric traumatic stress after an illness or injury, disseminated on HealthcareToolbox.org. 

Online courses

For healthcare providers interested in learning more about pediatric medical trauma or trauma-informed care, HealthCareToolbox.org offers ten free online courses, with continuing education credits available for multiple disciplines. https://www.healthcaretoolbox.org/catalogue   

Screening after pediatric injury

CPTS has developed resources for healthcare providers who may be screening for distress after pediatric injury, working to ensure that providers have support around selecting an evidence-based screening tool.  They have also, in partnership with Pediatric Trauma Society, created infographics on this topic for providers, available in PTS’s guidelines hub: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

• PTSD & Pediatric Injury
  • Visual Guideline
• PTSD Screening
  • Visual Guideline
• Trauma Informed Medical Care & Pediatric Injury
  • Visual Guideline

AfterTheInjury.org can also be shared with families as a tool for monitoring ongoing distress at home, and knowing when to seek additional support.