Coping with Accident Reactions (CARE) early intervention programme for preventing traumatic stress reactions in young injured children: study protocol for two randomised controlled trials

摘要

BackgroundAccidental injury represents the most common type of traumatic event experienced by children under the age of 6 years. Around 10–30 % of young injured children will go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other co-morbid conditions. Parents of injured children are also at risk of PTSD, and this is associated with short- and long-term consequences for their children’s physical and psychological recovery. Despite the significance of this problem, to date, the mental health needs of injured young children have been neglected. One reason for this is due to the uncertainty and considerable debate around how to best provide early psychological intervention to traumatised children and adults. To address these gaps, researchers and psychologists in Australia and Switzerland have developed the Coping with Accident Reactions (CARE) programme, which is a two-session early intervention designed to prevent persistent PTSD reactions in young injured children screened as ‘at risk’. Two separate international studies are being conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of this programme.