The implementation of a peer support group program for Intensive Care Unit (ICU) survivors and their families. The program is being co-led by Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and Redcliffe Hospital Intensive Care Units (ICU), with referrals from the wider Metro North Health community (Caboolture and The Prince Charles Hospitals) and incorporating telehealth technology to reach regional consumers.

Metro North Health operates two quaternary* and two regular intensive care units (ICU) with a total of 68 ICU beds, admitting over 5000 patients a year. With improvements in critical care treatment leading to increasing survivorship, clinicians and researchers are beginning to understand the challenging recovery trajectory that patients and caregivers face following ICU. There has been a change in focus from surviving critical injuries and illness, to quality of survival post ICU.

Physical, cognitive, and psychological problems are common among survivors of critical illness and are often associated with a reduced quality of life.  Collectively, the physical and psychosocial consequences of critical illness is known as Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS).

These issues are also seen in the caregivers of survivors (PICS-family). Although some in-ICU strategies to prevent PICS have been proposed, current strategies aimed at reducing PICS and PICS-family do not eliminate the problem, warranting additional intervention to treat the condition. The Post ICU Peer Support group program helps patients understand their experience, normalise it, and give it context, providing realistic expectations for different stages of their recovery. 

*Quaternary care refers to a level of highly specialised hospital equipment and expertise that is not available in every hospital. Some types of uncommon diagnostic or surgical procedures are considered quaternary care.

We discharge our patients statewide and they often go home to a community with little support or understanding of the PTSD type symptoms (PICS) and ongoing struggles that patients and families can experience after the trauma of an ICU admission. To date, we have held over 20 monthly meetings, with previous ICU patients and families attending in person or online at the RBWH or Redcliffe.  

This group has allowed our patients to process their trauma and move on with their lives. Provide resources for ICU survivors and health professionals to treat and manage their PICS symptoms.

The challenge has been to raise awareness of this service, and we now receive referrals from GPs and other healthcare services within Metro North Health.  Our numbers are growing and we endeavour to establish a nationwide group to share resources with other states and healthcare groups.