As a family member of a person who is suffering from a severe injury due to a car accident, you need to be there. It is a painful experience, and it could take time to recover. In many cases, the person might not even recover fully and will have to live a life with limitations they never had before.
It could also take a toll on you especially if the patient starts to act differently. Despite that, you need to show optimism, and don’t let the situation get the best of the family.
Be understanding
You might see significant attitude changes if a person went through a severe accident. For instance, if this person can no longer walk, you can’t expect huge smiles after the crash. This family member might also have been the breadwinner before the accident. Now, things have changed, and this person can no longer provide. You can expect severe mood swings, and you need to remain calm. Try your best to understand what the person is going through. It is also tough on you, but you are not the one with this condition, so the best thing to do is to show your support and love.
Don’t open up the subject
It is difficult for accident survivors to walk through the experience. Don’t ask them to open up about it, or force them to tell you how they survived. Tell everyone around this person to also do the same. The patient will share when the time is right. For now, you need to understand that it is a difficult subject. Allow the person to grieve, but you still need to act as if things are the same.
Give them time
If the patient asks for space, you need to give it. There are instances when the patient wants to be alone and think of everything that happened. It is tough for the entire family to see someone going through this problem. You also know that it could be taking a toll on other family members. Despite that, you need to respect the request. In time, this person will accept fate and move on. For now, the least that you can do is give them space and time.
Don’t force normalcy
One of the problems families have is they try to overreact by acting as if nothing happened. It is a good thing to not talk about the issue unless the patient is ready, but to pretend that everything is okay is not helping. You might also try to force the patient to go back to being normal because you want to move things along. It is not going to help if you act this way. Everything will go back to normal in due time but now is not the time.
Recommend a physical therapist
You don’t want to dictate to the patient how to deal with the emotional pain, but you can help with physical recovery. Recommending a physical therapist is a good idea. It does not mean that the therapist can bring everything back to how it used to be, but they can help soothe the pain. It is also possible to fully recover with patience and hard work.
It is never comfortable being in this situation, but you need to take things slow. Be patient, but also be optimistic.
