Evaluating the Impact of a Paediatric Burn Club for Children and Families Using Group Concept Mapping

Abstract

Access to burn camps and clubs is cited as an essential element for children following a burn injury. In the Northern Regional Burns Service, this takes the form of a club run by a multidisciplinary team, offering residential camps and family day trips. In this service evaluation, Group Concept Mapping was used to evaluate the perception of the club by staff, children and families. Opportunistic sampling was used to seek responses to the following prompts: “The challenges for children and families after a burn injury are…” and “The role of The Grafters Club is…”. The results indicate that participants perceived the club to be effective at addressing body image and confidence issues for the children but highlighted an unmet parental expectation that the club would also facilitate the sharing of experiences, normalisation of emotional reactions, and processing of guilt and other psychological distress for parents. When taken concurrently with pre-existing evidence in the literature base, it is proposed that a club model of psychosocial support for children and families could provide an accessible and informal opportunity for parental support that may be less subject to barriers perceived with traditional formal psychological support.