Abstract
M.A.
The process of sudden hospitalization is often experienced as a negative and traumatic event in people's lives. Traditionally, these traumatic events are dealt with by the medical professionals in the hospital setting. Due to time constraints and the urgent nature ofthe medical crisis, the patient is often left in very capable hands but the family is often left out ofthis process. This type of crisis throws a family into a tumult of disorganization. Parsonnet and Weinstein (1987), state that when patients are critically ill, their families suffer extreme emotional distress, often without the support of medical staffwho must
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focus on the needs ofthe patient first.
This study focuses on the family from a systemic perspective and looks at the effects on the whole system when one member becomes critically ill. This type of traumatic event can therefore lead to the family experiencing feelings such as fear, helplessness, shock, distress and a total lack ofcontrol. Many ofthese feelings are common to most traumatic events.
Three case studies are examined in which families describe their experience ofICU and sudden hospitalization and a qualitative analysis is then conducted to identify common themes among the three families.
This research examines how the fields ofsupportive psychotherapy and emergency medicine can be combined in order to create an environment in which not only the patient's needs are attended to, but where the family system's needs can be supported and
guided through an otherwise very traumatic experience. The concepts oftrauma and crisis will be discussed, as vyell as how this relates to family systems theory. The experiences offamilies will be discussed in detail and the possible methods that can be employed in order to support a family through this medical crisis.
This study is limited in the fact that only one interview was conducted but this is an exploratory study and is therefore only the beginning of an interesting area ofresearch.