The maintenance of hope and the capacity to cooperate fully during recovery is essential. The professional element of support during this time period is equally critical for those at risk. The emotional numbing of a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or the social withdrawal accompanying a Major Depressive Disorder can have a significant impact on the patient's ability to use rehabilitative resources as well as family supports during this time of increased stress. Recovery Phase Wounds, people, and communities heal. Managing the way in which the trauma is assimilated into the individual or community can affect both the rate and quality of the healing.
Psychiatry is a rehabilitative specialty that is constantly helping in the process of assimilation.
Trauma alters the recipient s sense of himself. The trauma does not go away. The ways in which trauma shapes the victim s life and the processing of these negative experiences can be managed to change feelings of helplessness and defeat into a sense of mastery and competence. Psychiatric care should help share what is learned from those who gain a mastery over events and aid those who are defeated and reexperiencing helplessness to have a more competent response.