This is a part of the podcast series from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center on Returning to School After Burn Injury. Sarah Stoycos discusses how to address a child's anxiety over returning to school after a burn injury. 

Some of the other challenges that may happen when returning to school is that a child may be really fearful or scared of returning because they may be afraid of what others may think or questions they may ask them. They may be struggling with, you know, traumatic memories of what happened, or just general stress related to the burn injury and the transition from hospital to home and then home, back to school. And so sometimes that can lead children and, and parents and siblings to want to avoid or not go back to school. So to prolong their return to school. And when this happens, it's really important that we try to address it early because we know that avoidance, which, as a psychologist, the way I think about that is when we're really afraid we choose not to do the thing we're afraid of. And that calms us down. So avoidance in that way. So scared of going back to school. So we just don't go back to school and then we feel calm. And that can really lead to unhelpful reactions long term.

And so when that is happening, it's important to intervene early and for the parents and family to reach out for help and to also tune into the siblings if the siblings are not wanting to go back as well. So that balance between meeting the child where they're at with allowing flexibility and adjustment while also trying to get them back to routine as soon as possible, even if it's scary, is really important and can be hard to navigate. So reaching out is, is recommended. 

Visit https://msktc.org/burn and get the answers you need from experts who conduct innovative and high-quality research, provide patient care, and work to improve the health and overall quality of life for people with burn injury. That’s https://msktc.org/burn.