If the children feel the need, and if the ICU authorizes it, you can bring them along on a visit to the patient. This visit can help them to better understand the situation, to evacuate certain imaginary anxieties, and also to prepare themselves for the post-intensiveintensive care period, whatever the outcome: preparing for a death is an important step in the grieving process, but understanding the seriousness of the situation will also help them to prepare for long rehabilitation, fatigue or after-effects in their loved ones, and thus smooth the transition.
It's important that you discuss this with the nursing team first, and that precautions are taken to allow the child to prepare for what he or she is about to see, so as to limit the shock and make it a genuinely helpful stage.
intensive care care psychologists are a valuable resource for supervising these visits and helping children to express their feelings.
Notez que parfois la déstabilisation de l’équilibre familial peut avoir un impact sur l’alimentation et amener à des carences, ou bien encore créer des troubles du sommeil, des changements d’habitudes du sommeil. Il est parfois utile de laisser un peu de souplesse dans les habitudes, comme dormir dans le lit des parents alors que cela n’est pas autorisé en temps normal.
Pensez également à prévenir le pédiatre familial de la situation afin qu’il vous aide à rester vigilant sur le reste de la fratrie du jeune malade.
Here are a few tips to help children cope with this difficult ordeal:
- Explain the situation to the child in words he or she can understand; be honest, but also reassuring about the things you can be;- Try to maintain daily routines as far as possible;- Warn the school and extracurricular organizations that a relative is in intensive care;- It may be important for the child to have an adult outside the family unit with whom to talk, so that he or she can express him or herself without feeling that he or she is adding stress or sadness to the parents; - Providing a space for the child to express himself, so that he can verbalize or draw what he has understood about the situation and how he feels, will give you the opportunity to adjust things;- As with adults, support from a trained professional (psychologist, for example) may be useful if the situation proves difficult for the child to manage.
Identifying symptoms of stress or psychological distress in a child :
There are three frequent ways in which children express stress or psychological distress:
What to do?
To find out more :
Identifying symptoms of stress or psychological distress in children
Identifying acute stress in children and how to help them
Parler de stress post-traumatique à un enfant