Wishard Health Services forms recovery program to provide peer support for burn patients

Contact: Todd Harper 
Phone: (317) 630-7808 
Pager: (317) 310-5972

Indianapolis, October 30, 2009 – Burn patients typically face a long road to recovery.  Rehabilitation can often take weeks or even months.  
A proven tool to help encourage patients in the recovery process is to allow a patient to interact with others who have gone through similar experiences.  The Richard M. Fairbanks Burn Center at Wishard recently initiated S.O.A.R. (Survivors Offering Assistance in Recovery), a voluntary program designed to provide peer support for those whose lives have been touched by a burn injury. 
S.O.A.R. is a national program developed by the Phoenix Society and now open to Wishard burn survivors and their families.  Peer supporters, including former patients and family members, assist burn patients and families in coping and adapting to a burn injury through sharing their experiences and recovery.  
"S.O.A.R. will significantly improve our ability to provide post burn support to patients and their families," said Dr. Rajiv Sood, medical director of the Richard M. Fairbanks Burn Center at Wishard and associate professor of plastic surgery, department of plastic surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine.
At Wishard a group of peer supporters were selected through an interview process and recently completed the required training to become S.O.A.R. volunteers.  Through the training the volunteers have learned active listening, problem solving and peer support skills.  
The S.O.A.R. program was introduced in 2001 by the Phoenix Society and has helped to qualify and validate the peer support that had previously been provided on an informal basis.  Six hospitals nationwide were originally chosen to implement S.O.A.R. as part of a pilot group to test the program and provide feedback.  Currently there are over 30 burn centers utilizing the S.O.A.R. program in the U.S.  
One of only 50 burn centers in the United States verified by the American College of Surgeons and the American Burn Association, the Richard M. Fairbanks Burn Center at Wishard treats more than 350 inpatients and 1,500 outpatients each year.  Since 1993, the burn center has seen an increase of approximately 15 percent per year in the number of patients treated.  The burn center at Wishard is regarded as one of the finest and most progressive burn centers in the United States, and is located above the Emergency Department and IU/Wishard Level I Trauma Center at Wishard Memorial Hospital.