616 Young Adults Burn Survivors - Key Challenges They Faced While Growing Up

Introduction There is a paucity of research regarding the challenges faced by young adults (YA) who matured with burns. It is well documented that acute burn care is laden with painful surgeries/dressing changes, gruesome physical/occupational therapies, anxiety and time away from family & friends. However, the specific issues young adults burned as children find most challenging remain largely unknown. This study sought to provide YA survivors with an opportunity to describe the difficult issues they endured. Methods Burn surviving youth responded to the open-ended statement “The hardest thing about being burned is…” Seven themes were derived from their responses: People Staring at Me, Being Bullied, Remembering When I was Burned, Having Additional Surgeries, My Scars, Getting Questions About My Burns,& the Pain & Itching, Young adult survivors were asked to rate each item on a 4-point scale from (1) Not at all to (4) Really a lot. Results Participants were YA survivors (n=64) mean age 19.1 years, female (62%) male (38%), average age at burn of 6.4 yrs. Sixty-eight percent reported both visible & hidden scars; 25% had a TBSA > 50%., Sixty-six percent were minority race/ethnicity. More than half of respondents reported issues with My Scars (65%), Remembering the Burn (52%) and Pain & Itching (50%). People Staring and Bullying has been bothersome for over 70%, 72% reported Being Bullied and 71% noted People Staring. The highest 5 means among YA subgroups included: Participants with hand scars- Being Bullied (2.6), those with visible scars - My Scars (2.6). Those reporting both facial & hand scars endorsed People Staring (2.4), youth with a TBSA ≥ 50% - Being Bullied (2.4) and with visible scars - Remembering the Burn – (2.4). Girls were bothered significantly more by My Scars (p=.02). Youth with both facial & hand scars had greater issues with Pain/Itch (p=.03). Conclusions This study provides insight into problems encountered by maturing burn survivors and discloses the more challenging issues they endured. These data can assist burn centers, camps, and psychotherapists in discussing potential survivor issues and suggest interventions to help burn-injured youth respond to challenges. Special consideration should be given to girls, those with facial/hand scars, large TBSAs and visible scarring.

Hidden scars: the impact of violence and the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health

More than 1 billion children are exposed to violence every year. The devastating immediate and long-term impact of violence on the mental health of children is well established. Despite commitments made by the international community to end violence against children and support their mental health, there has been a serious lack of investment and capacity to provide quality, rights-based, culturally appropriate mental health care globally. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified these challenges. This article outlines how the risk of children experiencing violence has increased and how the pandemic has weakened the capacity of child protection and mental health services to respond. The article argues for child protection, mental health and other core services to be prioritized during and after the pandemic. A failure to do so will undermine the international community’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and to fulfil its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Sharing Hidden Scars

As a middle grades teacher, the author made positive student-teacher relationships a priority within her classroom. In this narrative, she describes how sharing her own invisible scars with her students provided an opportunity for one particular student to come to her after this student experienced a sexual assault. By allowing her students a glimpse at her own humanity, this teacher was able to serve as an advocate for a student who was struggling to move forward in dealing with her own trauma.