Crash-related injuries often pose mental challenges for victims

Victims of car accidents often continue dealing with the mental consequences long after physical injuries have healed. Sometimes, the crash victim is physically ready to return to work but lacks mental healing strategies. Although help is available, it comes at a cost, and questions about recovering financial damages need answers. The road to recovery starts with a clinical counsellor’s assessment and an explanation of the approaches and techniques the treatment will involve.

Cognitive therapy

Cognitive therapy teaches crash victims how to change their thought patterns by facing what caused the mental health problems head-on. These issues typically involve depression and anxiety, and cognitive therapy helps the car accident victim understand the problems and how to manage and control them. Therapists help patients replace inaccurate, unhelpful and distressing thoughts with proactive and helpful ideas and behaviours.

Exposure therapy

Flashbacks, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder are some of the various mental health conditions that can be treated by controlled exposure. The therapist uses safe ways to progressively increase the person’s exposure by mimicking the experiences that caused the mental health issues in the first place. An example is a driver getting back behind the wheel after a crash.

Seeking monetary damages

These are some of the tools mental therapists use to help traumatized crash victims return to work and live their lives as close to normal as possible. Properly documenting any type of mental health treatment related to the accident is often an important step toward ultimately receiving the full amount of damages to which one is entitled. Having a support team by one’s side throughout this process, including the services of an experienced lawyer, can allow a victim to better focus on his or her recovery during these challenging times.