This is a part of the podcast series from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center on Returning to School After Burn Injury. Alexi Pyles and Maria Elena Tome discuss how peer support can help a child return to school after burn injury. 

Being in a peer support group, I actually hated it at first. I remember the very day, so Keely Quinn, she was our program manager. So what I, what she, what I'm doing now, she did way back when I was a teenager, and she, we went to a family camp with burn survivors, and she told me and the other teenagers, she said, we're gonna have a support group. And I looked at her and I said, no, I do not want a support group. And she said, I think it's important that we all talk about, right, the things that aren't usually discussed with burn survivors. And so there, I believe there was maybe like eight of us very angsty teenagers, angrily eating, I don't know, Cheetos, and drinking Super Juicy Slam juice boxes. And just sitting there with our arms crossed like, why are we here?

And I think the thing that really brought us closer together was, well, you'll get something out of it, and maybe you can do a fun trip. And we're like, oh, okay, we'll do a fun trip. But nowhere did we even think of this was like support group, you know, with mental health or just like, you know, growing ourselves. It was more like, oh, okay, fine, we'll show up if we get something out of it. Like, I don't know, a trip to Disneyland. But in that process where I feel like Keely secretly was like instilling those seeds. And at the end of, you know, going to London, it wasn't even about London. It was about the friendships we made. And so it's kind of like that funny twist of, haha, you, I see what you did there. That was sneaky.  

But yes, I do agree. In the beginning I didn't want it. I didn't want support. I think a big part of feeling like a burn survivor and having so much, having been bullied so much at school, I was like, I just wanna be isolated, right? I just wanna sit in this misery. I don't care. Right? What's there to live for anyways? And, you know, it does get deep, and I think just even, you know, normalizing like that happens. But showing up every, I think it was twice a month on a Saturday for three hours. And just even sitting there and being amongst others who felt the same way started to not make that feeling feel so heavy anymore and that they can help carry some of that burden or maybe even carry that and change it more into love or into that positive support.

I think support groups can be very empowering for children when they share what they have in common. Even very young children who can't verbalize everything, but they understand that they have a burn, and then suddenly in the middle of a group, they'll just put up their, their leg and say, I gotta burn here, too. And then, you know, they'll start to show them. I, I went to a camp one year and it was a burn camp, and it was just so cute because these were four-year-old children. And we were waiting in line for the bathroom, and they didn't know each other. And it was a boy and a girl, and one little boy said, did you get burned? She goes, yeah, I did. He goes, well, I got burned here. And he put up his shirt and then the little girl said, well, I got burned here. And then she showed her scar, and I thought, whoa! How empowering that was. And these were just little four year olds, and they just showed, and they were so, so natural and they weren't worried about it. And I think, you know, being in, in an environment where they're with someone else and they're seeing that they're not the only ones with these type of scars gives them permission to kind of talk about it and not feel that they're alone in all of this.  

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.