Responsibility for child and adolescent’s psychosocial support associated with severe sports injuries

The manner in which health professionals and coaches act and decide on treatment and prognosis can influence athletes in a way that not only strengthens them, but it can also reduce their confidence in their own ability. The purpose was to determine who has the responsibility for child and adolescent psychosocial support needed in connection with a severe sports injury as well as investigate whether coaches, physiotherapists and parents are aware of the support that is needed. Qualitative interviews with coaches, parents and physiotherapists with experience of serious sports injuries in young people aged 12 to 16 years old from different sports were analysed using content analysis. The study showed that all actors independently imparted communication as being the major problem and indicated that the role of a coordinator was missing. They imparted cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions in children, which were considered to be more common in younger children as indicated in previous studies. Coaches felt they had lack of education and time; parents described their disappointment in caregivers and personality changes in their children in connection with the injury. Physiotherapists felt that rehabilitation was often served as a substitute for the sport and that they therefore had greater responsibility for the child than they had been educated for. Results should be communicated to participants who are involved in children’s and adolescent’s sports to increase their knowledge and thus allow them to be able to give our children the best possibility, regardless of whether they return to the sport or not.