Group meetings for parents in a children's burns unit

Thermal injuries in childhood occur mainly in the first three years of life and often lead to hospital admission: most are due to scalds in the home. The distress and anxiety of parents bears on the management of the young sick child in hospital, on his subsequent recovery at home and on the welfare of the whole family. To help parents, a weekly meeting was held with a small group of staff in the Burns Unit at which there was free and open discussion of all problems and worries connected with the child's accident. This paper describes the working of the group and the contribution it made to the care of 149 children admitted with burns and scalds during one year.