The Level 1 Trauma Center at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center sees 4,000 patients each year. Of these, 1,500 are considered “trauma alert” cases, which are the most intense and complex. Geralyn Ritter was once one of those patients — and now she is committed to giving back to Penn Medicine, making a difference, and improving the recovery journey for both trauma patients and their caregivers.
A family recovering from a regional tragedy
On May 12, 2015, an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia with 238 passengers onboard, killing eight people and injuring over 200. Geralyn Ritter, wife and mother of three, was among them — she was so severely injured that she was unidentifiable and known to the hospital as “Jane Doe” until her family was able to locate her. After over 30 surgical procedures at Penn Presbyterian, Geralyn started her long road to recovery.
A traumatic injury or accident can change life in an instant. Ritter’s accident made her realize the importance of emotional recovery, in addition to physical recovery. She was fortunate to have the support of her loving family, who talked openly about the accident, as they processed their trauma together as a unit — and continue to do so today.
Inspired by their own recovery journey, the family established the Ritter and Smitherman Family Fund at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center to create more support for both trauma patients and their caregivers. Geralyn and her husband, as well as her parents, Geralyn and Jim Smitherman, were dedicated to doing something meaningful and came together as a family to make a substantial gift — a gift to hire a social worker embedded in the Trauma and Orthopaedic Trauma outpatient clinics at Penn Presbyterian.
Making mental health a part of the healing journey
Research now recognizes the significant impact of a patient’s mental health on their recovery journey. In fact, a patient’s ‘mood score’ correlates with their perception of pain and the self-assessment of functional capacity. The mood score is a self-reported NIH-based measurement tool to assess an individual’s mental health risk and potential need for extra support. Tracking a patient’s mood scores and learning more about their existing support system — in addition to considering the extent of their injuries — has helped the team identify patients who might benefit from having a social worker added to their care team. Samir Mehta, MD, Chief of Orthopaedic Trauma and Fracture Care, and his team believe that around 20 percent of their orthopaedic trauma patients could see greater improvement from involving a licensed social worker in their recovery plan — a percentage that may well be reflected across all trauma specialties if further studied.
“A gift of this nature,” Mehta said, “really has a dramatic impact on our ability to pilot opportunities like this and measure the outcomes, publish and present the results, and afford change at Penn Medicine — as well as show other trauma centers around the county that this is a valuable resource and an investment that ultimately helps society.”
Social workers play an important role in helping patients successfully navigate their care and take advantage of all the specialists at Penn Medicine to ensure that a patient and their caregiver's living and emotional stability is being assessed with the same attention as their physical health.
Trauma recovery looks different for all people, and the Ritter family’s philanthropic support allows Penn to provide additional resources that can directly impact the lives of patients, caregivers, and the community.
Last summer, Lisa Christian joined Penn as a multi-specialty outpatient trauma social worker thanks to the direct support from the Ritter Smitherman Fund. Lisa comes to Penn with years of experience in the field — and she is ready to make a difference for trauma patients at Penn. “It’s been really gratifying to have a role dedicated to talking to patients about their individual challenges and working together to find solutions. So far, people not only want resources, but they want to come to a place consistently to talk about what’s going on and goals to move forward,” said Lisa.
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