How we can help children and young people experiencing post-traumatic stress

We need to be more open to children and young people’s views rather than dismissing opportunities to learn about trauma alongside them

Exposure to trauma in childhood and adolescence is sadly a common experience, with a large recent UK study suggesting that more than 30% of people may experience a trauma before they become adults (Lewis et al 2019). Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be a common reaction to trauma in children and teenagers and such intrusive memories, nightmares and flashbacks can be distressing.

Single incident

In our recently published paper (Meiser-Stedman et al 2019), we looked at post-traumatic stress in more than 200 eight-17 year olds who had been involved in some kind of single incident trauma, typically a motor vehicle collision, assault or other medical emergency.