<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe researchers also compared health insurance claims of survivors\u2019 parents and siblings to family members of kids who did not suffer a firearm injury. Mothers of survivors experienced a 30% increase in psychiatric disorders and fathers a 31% increase, relative to controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis illustrates the shared trauma experienced by families,\u201d said Song. His analysis also showed that moms of survivors may be neglecting their own health care. Their routine office visits fell by 6%, imaging by 14% and laboratory tests by 9% relative to controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the study, siblings of children and teens with firearm injuries did not show an increase in mental health diagnoses and services. The data does not offer an explanation, but Song and his colleagues have a hypothesis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSiblings may be staying in their rooms on the phone and on the internet, avoiding social interaction, coping in a way that may not be healthy and is less visible to the health care system,\u201d said Song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, they may not be getting the appropriate care they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results provide more evidence of the need for clinicians, communities and policy makers to direct mental health resources to survivors and their families, experts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers limited their study to one year before and one year after a firearm injury because a longer study would have been less rigorous. It would have meant following fewer people as employees leave their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pediatrician Dr. Katherine Hoops, a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said the struggle for survivors and family members likely continues beyond the year after the initial injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn my own experience walking alongside families after violent injuries, these things never go away or they take a long time for a family, a community or an individual to cope with,\u201d said Hoops, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you talk to someone who has been shot, who has had a child or family member shot or who has lost a family member to gun violence, they will have no trouble telling you about the longer-term physical, emotional, mental and economic costs,\u201d said Dr. Elinore Kaufman, a trauma surgeon and the medical director for the Penn Trauma Violence Recovery Program at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Keely Roberts, who with her son Cooper was among the victims of the July 4, 2022 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, recovery sometimes feels like \u201ctwo steps forward\u201d followed by \u201cmoments where it\u2019s three steps back.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cooper, then 8, was paralyzed and now uses a wheelchair. Roberts said Cooper tries so hard to be positive, but, like the children in the study, he is struggling to cope with the aftermath of the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverything about our life has been just destroyed, and his little tiny body is just so hurt,\u201d Roberts said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being back in school is a comfort for Cooper but also a source of anxiety, sorrow and grief, Roberts said. \u201cHe was so happy to see his friends and that brought him tremendous comfort, but it also was a reminder of what was stolen from him, what was taken so painfully away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roberts said the school and community have been tremendously supportive, as have her son\u2019s medical providers who told the family from day one that there would be mental health challenges ahead. Counseling has helped everyone in the family, she said, although progress is uneven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And like the mothers in the new research, Roberts has neglected her own routine health care. She has taken a leave from work to get Cooper the care he needs, but \u201cthere are only so many hours in the day and something has to give,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n