Promotion of emotional disclosure following illness and injury: A brief intervention for medical patients and their families

While considerable resources are dedicated to preparing patients and their significant others for the process of physical recovery and rehabilitation following illness/injury, provision of information and support regarding the trajectory of psychosocial recovery from these stressors is not the standard of care in clinical medical settings. Given the strong influence of social environment on cognitive-emotional processing and psychosocial adjustment following illness and injury, it is important to identify interventions that help medical patients and their families to create a family environment that is conducive to processing and support. In this article, we (a) briefly review relevant literature on the psychosocial impact of illness and injury, the importance of cognitive-emotional processing and social environment to illness/injury-related adjustment, and existing models of intervention in the medical setting; (b) describe a brief intervention we have developed and pilot-tested to promote cognitive-emotional processing among medical patients and their families; (c) describe our clinical experiences with the intervention to date; and (d) offer suggestions for delivery of the intervention in clinical practice and for conducting research on its efficacy.