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SOAR (Survivors Offering Assistance in Recovery)
The SOAR
program is designed to provide peer support to those whose lives
have been touched by a burn injury. Peer support assists individuals
in adapting to a burn injury through sharing similar experiences.
Why are support groups necessary?
In this day of extraordinary
medical advances there remain two types of injuries that leave scars
that are not only painful and long lasting but can be emotionally and
mentally devastating. One of them is amputation and the other is burns.
Deep tissue burns, 3 rd or 4 th degree, leave physical scars that last
a lifetime and may require several surgeries and skin grafts to completely
heal and regain mobility. The medical professionals who perform the
surgeries and skin grafts do their best to repair the physical damage;
however the emotional and mental scars require an intimate understanding
of the healing process.
Only a person who has survived and recovered from such an injury can
understand the complexity of this healing process.
- Patients and their caregivers benefit from seeing others who have
made a successful recovery. They show that “it can be done.”
- SOAR participants offer a voice of experience. Those who have recovered
from a burn injury have learned a lot through trial and error and
are eager to share their knowledge with other survivors.
- Hospitals and local agencies can tap into the motivation and skills
of trained volunteers.
- Volunteers find the role of providing peer support personally rewarding
and fulfilling.
If you are a burn survivor and wish to participate in our local SOAR
program or if you are a burn patient or survivor and wish to have a
SOAR peer assist you please contact
Stacey Dreesen at (605) 661-9573 or Allison Coover at (712) 258-5102
SOAR meetings are held on Sunday afternoons at St. Lukes Medical Center’s
Meeting Room #1 in the lower level.
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