'Behind the Blue': ‘Afraid of the Doctor’ With Meghan Marsac and Melissa Hogan
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 14, 2021) — Medical trauma, the emotional and physiological reactions that many children with medical conditions and their family members experience, happens to millions of people and can cause a variety of adverse reactions, regardless of the severity of the medical condition being treated.
On this episode of "Behind the Blue," Meghan Marsac and Melissa Hogan discuss their new book that addresses medical trauma, how to understand it and tips to overcome it. "Afraid of the Doctor: Every Parent’s Guide to Preventing and Managing Medical Trauma" is the first book written for parents with the primary goal of equipping them with the knowledge and skills to support their children through medical challenges. The book will be available beginning July 16, 2021, and readers can find more information here.
Marsac is a pediatric psychologist and tenured associate professor at the University of Kentucky and Kentucky Children’s Hospital, with expertise in promoting adjustment and preventing post-traumatic stress in parents and their children with medical conditions. Clinically, she implements evidence-based practices to facilitate families' management of medical treatment and emotional adjustment to challenging diagnoses and medical procedures. In addition, Marsac specializes in training medical teams in the implementation of trauma-informed medical care.
Hogan earned a juris doctor with a focus on health law from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she served as executive editor of the Law Review. She has worked as an attorney, a consultant on law firm strategy, and an adjunct professor of legal writing and health care regulatory law.
Hogan is the mother of three boys, the youngest of whom was diagnosed with the rare disease Hunter syndrome as a toddler. Soon after her son’s diagnosis, she began to blog about what she was learning and her family’s experience with her son’s condition. That blog connected her to a community of parents around the world whose children had Hunter syndrome or other chronic conditions.
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