Grant: CIHR-IMHA Inclusive Research Excellence Prizes - Patient Engagement

Unintentional traumatic injuries due to motor vehicle collisions, falls or fires drastically change an individual's life and negatively affect their physical, mental and social well-being. Complex trauma recovery requires patients to receive care in multiple settings before returning home. Patients describe feeling unready to transition from one care environment to another and express a need for greater socioemotional support. Most trauma care is focused on physical improvement, highlighting a need to provide patients with complementary psychosocial support throughout their recovery. Empathic support from peers is rooted in lived experience and can enhance the long-term health of trauma patients, reduce social isolation, and improve community reintegration. Peer support programs are very cost-effective, with the savings they afford far surpassing their costs. Despite this, no peer support programs have been developed or integrated across the continuum of trauma care in Canada. With support from a 2022 fall CIHR Project Grant, we addressed this gap by hosting six virtual co-design workshops to co-design a peer support program (PSP) with trauma survivors (n=4), caregivers (n=3) and healthcare providers (n=4). Additionally, we had three committed patient partners who provided insight and feedback on study processes and actively engaged in co-designing the PSP. Co-design workshops took place over Zoom every two weeks from February 6 to April 18, 2023. Participants were meaningfully engaged in a series of activities and discussions that informed the co-creation of the PSP including determining program goals, target population, intervention points, support types, delivery, dosage, evaluation, and outcomes. Our patient- and family-centered approach invaluably contributed to the readiness of the PSP for pilot trial in the coming months (supported by a fall 2024 CIHR Project Grant).