The importance of mental health considerations for critical care burns patients

Mental health issues for critical care patients have important consequences for care, recovery and follow-up (Kornhaber, Childs, & Cleary, 2017; Kornhaber, Haik, Sayers, Escott, & Cleary, 2017). Burn injuries and treatment can be both physically and psychologically traumatic. Patients are often confronted by adjustments to physical capacity and body image (O'Donnell, Bryant, Creamer, & Carty, 2008), with the distress affecting not only the patient but also their families (Johnson, Taggart, & Gullick, 2016) and even burns clinicians (Haik et al., 2017). Treatments, such as debridement and wound dressings, often add additional pain and distress (McLean, Chen, Kwiet, Vandervord, & Kornhaber, 2017) and the process of recovery can be protracted, intrusive and dehumanizing (Horridge, Cohen, & Gaskell, 2010).