Peer Support Experiences and Needs after a Traumatic Injury: A Qualitative Study of Patient, Caregiver, and Healthcare Provider Perspectives

Research Objectives: Traumatic injuries significantly impact individuals’ physical and mental health and are a leading cause of disability worldwide. Trauma recovery is complex and entails patients interacting with multiple places of care before returning to the community. Despite trauma recovery being optimized when patients’ psychosocial needs are addressed early on and throughout recovery, care remains overwhelmingly focused on physical and functional improvement. Peer support is a cost-effective way of providing emotionally and experientially-driven psychosocial support that complements usual patient care. Thus, we aimed to explore the experiences of trauma survivors, family caregivers, and healthcare providers (HCPs) with engaging in and facilitating peer support and to identify their priorities for a future peer support program.

Design: Qualitative descriptive approach.. We conducted one-one-one interviews with participants which were recorded and transcribed. Data was thematically analyzed by multiple analysts to reduce bias and enhance data reliability.

Setting: Trauma survivors, caregivers and HCPs were recruited from three major trauma centres in Ontario

Participants: We interviewed n=16 trauma survivors, n=4 caregivers, and n=16 HCPs

Interventions: N/A

Main Outcome Measures: N/A

Results: We identified four themes: (1) Navigating life after injury is challenging and characterized by uncertainty; (2) Numerous supports are needed to enable trauma recovery across the continuum; (3) Peer support is uniquely beneficial and preferred by trauma survivors; and (4) Support from peers facilitates recovery and positively impacts health and well-being.

Conclusions: Peer support can enhance trauma patients’ long-term health and recovery. At present, however, there are no programs that provide trauma patients with sustained peer support across the continuum of care. Our study demonstrates that peer support is valued across stakeholders and has the potential to positively impact the psychosocial health of trauma survivors throughout recovery. Future development of a cross-continuum peer support program will consider how to connect peers early on after injury and sustain these relationships into community recovery.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts to declare.