A Telehealth Approach to Caregiver Self-Management Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

An individualized education and mentored problem-solving approach delivered via telephone in the first few months following community discharge of the TBI survivor resulted in better caregiver outcomes than usual care. Consideration should be given to using this approach to augment the limited support typically offered to caregivers.

Characteristics and Concerns of Caregivers of Adults With Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Close to half of the caregivers were working full-time at the time of study enrollment. As reported in the primary results paper for the RCT, 26 there were no differences in demographics between the Copyright © 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.…”

“…The intervention combined education and mentored problemsolving 26 for participants in the treatment arm. Participants in the control group received usual care.…”

“…We know of no studies that have looked at the problems caregivers experience as they occur. In this study, as part of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a telephonebased intervention for caregivers, 26 we examined, in real time, the types of issues that caregivers of persons with TBI chose to address in the first few months after the TBI survivor was discharged to the community. As a secondary objective, we also examined the demographic characteristics of the caregivers, the characteristics of the caregiver-survivor relationships, caregiver resource use, and caregiver activity changes.…”

Interventions That Support or Involve Caregivers or Families of Patients with Traumatic Injury: a Systematic Review

“…Definitions of TBI varied and included self-report of a head trauma, 30,31,34,36 the Glasgow Coma Scale, 33,35 and the VA Criteria for TBI. 28 The ROB was judged low for two studies, 29,35 unclear for three studies, 28,32,34 and high for four studies. 30,31,33,36 TBI: Patient Outcomes.…”

“…These analyses included five RCTs (455 patients). 28,29,31,33,35 Interventions evaluated across the five RCTs included a home visitation program to improve caregiver coping (Veterans In-Home Program-VIP), 28,37 group psychoeducation, 33 family-based telephone counseling using motivational interviewing for problem-solving, 35 problem-solving therapy with TBI family caregivers, 29 and patient and significant other mentoring on topics such as disease education and relationship skills (i.e., building trust, problem-solving, goal-setting). 31 The number of contacts across interventions was similar.…”