Each person grieves in their own way and on their own time table. Some victims and survivors withdraw, turn inward and cut off their social contacts because they are embarrassed or depressed about their injuries. They can’t accept what has happened to them: their appearance, their changed abilities, their new realities. Even though there may be resources to assist you, you can find yourself focusing only on the despair you sometimes feel. Seeking support is critical to the process of healing.
Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation is the process of helping an individual to achieve the highest level of functioning, independence, and quality of life following an injury. While rehabilitation does not fix the damage, it can help an injured victim and survivor work
toward recovery and adjust to any physical changes that may occur. Many victims and survivors of substance impaired driving crashes experience major physical changes that produce real challenges. As a victim and survivor, you may find that you need to learn how to do things a little differently, or change your daily activities all together.
You may need to learn how to do things differently.
After a crash, injured victims and survivors are often admitted to acute care facilities before transferring to sub-acute facilities for continued rehabilitation. Rehabilitation may begin in the hospital and can continue for years following the crash. The best outcomes occur when acute care and rehabilitation are initiated as early as possible. An interdisciplinary team consisting of physicians and nurses, physical, occupational, and speech therapists, dietitians, and social workers can coordinate a victim and survivor’s medical treatment. Although the attending physician writes orders for any rehabilitative therapy, the doctor may rely upon the assessments of individual therapists to determine the course of a particular therapeutic intervention.
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