Strategies for dealing with people with PTSD?

[Miranda]

He is receiving psych treatment and he is on medication. But he is very ill and there are days when I feel like I'm in over my head.

You might consider if the patient would sign a release of patient confidentiality consent for you to contact his therapist and see what suggestions he/she might have (and/or start with asking the medical doctor's advice- since your PT order stems from them).

This link below should go to a website that briefly notes some information about EMDR (sure there are more indepth articles, this was just the 1st web site that popped up in google for me).

http://www.safeharborhouse.com/artic...PTSD-Treatment

I've personally undergone this techinique before and it was helpful. But I did have some side effects as my session was "incomplete" the therapists called it. Which she explained everything to me before. To that I was grateful or I would have thought I'd completely lost my mind when they happened.

Just sharing that experience in that if possible to establish a relation with his other care providers it might give you a heads up on how to problem solve even better.

As others have stated, agreed about your caring attitude and going the extra mile. Your patient is blessed to have you.

Good Luck.

[Wahine]

You might consider if the patient would sign a release of patient confidentiality consent for you to contact his therapist and see what suggestions he/she might have (and/or start with asking the medical doctor's advice- since your PT order stems from them).

As others have stated, agreed about your caring attitude and going the extra mile. Your patient is blessed to have you.

Good Luck.

Thank you for your input. I've done these techniques myself and did find them very useful.

[indysteel]

Thank you for your input. I've done these techniques myself and did find them very useful.

Me too. My therapist asked me to volunteer for it so that she could get enough hours to be certified in EMDR. While I don't technically have PSTD, I do have some things from my childhood that were traumatic, and EMDR really helped me process through them in a way that talk therapy had not. If your patient hasn't considered it, perhaps that's something you could discuss with him.

As others have stated, your compassion toward this man and desire to help and understand him is admirable.