What is Adjustment to Injury Counselling?
The process of adapting to a physical injury during the rehabilitation process can lead to a variety of difficulties and a number of changes in people’s lives including:
- Physical – Pain; decreased strength/flexibility; increased medication use;
decreased physical activity; & postural changes. - Psychological – Unhelpful beliefs; thoughts; & worry.
- Emotional – Anger; teariness; hopelessness; & frustration.
- Work – Impaired abilities & competence; changes in work role/loss of job.
- Family – Increased irritability with partner/children/family; financial difficulties.
- Social – Withdrawal from friends and leisure activities.
Adjustment to injury counselling teaches self-management strategies for coping with these changes; increases options and alternative ways for doing things; and provides support during the rehabilitation process.
The Importance of Early Treatment
If these difficulties are untreated they can lead to a range of psychological problems including: depression, anxiety, phobia, chronic sleep problems, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, relationship problems and substance abuse. Early intervention can moderate or prevent psychological disturbance by providing effective skills to manage problems in all areas of a person’s life.
Adjustment to Injury Counselling Benefits
Counselling specifically focused on in injury adjustment can lead to an early recovery and enable the person to return to work. The main benefits are:
- Sessions are only 1 hour a week and usually for about six weeks to 12 weeks depending on frequency.
- All sessions are goal oriented and solution focused.
- Skills taught are pro-active and based on self-management.
- The approach is based on scientific evidence.
- It is drug free and typically not long term.
Treatment Outline
Treatment is based on the assessment of each individual, and his or her specific needs. However, a typical general outline of the skills taught and the focus of sessions are as follows:
Session 1: Assessment, the grieving process, and goal setting.
Session 2: Pain management and challenging unhelpful thoughts.
Session 3: More sleep, less worry and relaxation.
Session 4: Exploring your interactions with others, and defining or adapting your role after injury.
Session 5: Examining work options, how you work, and ways to make your work more manageable.
Session 6: Summary of treatment and predicting future difficulties to aid in their prevention.
Further Information
Contact Parkside Medical for more information.