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VCU Medical Center offers unique burn victim peer-support recovery program

5/16/2008

The Evans-Haynes Burn Center at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center is now offering a new support program for burn victims.

Known as S.O.A.R., which stands for Survivors Offering Assistance in Recovery, the program provides burn victims and family members a unique opportunity to obtain peer support from someone who has survived a burn or whose life has been touched by a burn injury.

The VCU S.O.A.R. program is one of the first programs in Virginia offering a peer-support group for burn survivors. About 20 exist in various parts of the world.

"This program is a much-needed resource for the burn community here," said Lillie Willis, clinical coordinator for the VCU Evans-Haynes Burn Unit and S.O.A.R. "We want to help burn victims become burn survivors."

The hospital-based program is part of the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, which believes peer-support assists individuals in adapting to a burn injury by sharing similar experiences. 

Upon joining the program, patients or family members are paired with a trained peer support volunteer. Volunteers are trained to work in a hospital setting and learn the stages in the recovery process for patients and family members.

Willis says volunteers also benefit because providing support can be rewarding and fulfilling because they are helping others make the transition from burn victim to burn survivor.

The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors works closely with local hospitals and agencies to implement the S.O.A.R. program and provides training materials, trainers and a process for evaluating the program. VCU's S.O.A.R. team is looking for volunteers.

Burn victims seeking assistance or burn survivors interested in supporting victims, can call (804) 828-9242 or for more information, visit http://www.phoenix-society.org/.

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