Understanding the role of communication in maintaining and forming friendships following traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Participants' stories illustrate the need to address post-TBI communication difficulties within social contexts. Further research addressing communication difficulties that impact on friendships specific to gender, age and time post-injury is warranted.

Review of the literature on the use of social media by people with traumatic brain injury (TBI)

“…People with TBI often experience significant changes in communication after injury [13]. Communication disabilities after TBI can be related to receptive and expressive aphasia, changes in attention and concentration, social communication disorders, as well as difficulties with timing, processing, and higher level language skills (cognitive-communication) [13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

“…In terms of functional outcomes, people with a significant (moderate-severe) TBI generally achieve independence for activities of daily life [13]. However, loss of communication skills for those with a significant TBI is common due to cognitive-communicative deficits, which can have wide-ranging consequences socially [13][14][15]18,23]. It is common for people with TBI to lose friends within the first year after injury and there are often notable difficulties after TBI in maintaining and building social networks [13,[23][24][25], including changing relationships and communication with family members [26][27][28].…”

“…It is common for people with TBI to lose friends within the first year after injury and there are often notable difficulties after TBI in maintaining and building social networks [13,[23][24][25], including changing relationships and communication with family members [26][27][28]. Their ability to socialise and to build or maintain relationships is often greatly impaired [13,15,18]. This frequently leads to feelings of social disconnection and loss of self-identity [13,15,18,[23][24][25]29].…”

“…Their ability to socialise and to build or maintain relationships is often greatly impaired [13,15,18]. This frequently leads to feelings of social disconnection and loss of self-identity [13,15,18,[23][24][25]29]. There has been considerable investigation into rehabilitation of social communication disorders after TBI [13,23,24,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37], including the benefit of training communication partners of people with a TBI [27,[38][39][40] and it is generally agreed in the literature that it can be very challenging for people with a TBI to reintegrate into society and to communicate effectively in the many social domains of life after brain injury.…”

Effectiveness of Communication-specific Coping Intervention for adults with traumatic brain injury: preliminary results

“…As communication deficits are not only common but also persistent, people with TBI frequently continue to experience communication breakdown. They describe everyday communicative interactions as stressful (Bracy & Douglas, 2005;Douglas & Spellacy, 2000) and relatives, teachers, employers and friends who interact with them regularly, frequently view social communication problems as one of the most problematic consequences of the injury (Bootes & Chapparo, 2010;Douglas & Spellacy, 2000;Galski, Tompkins, & Johnston, 1998;O'Flaherty & Douglas, 1997;Rietdjik, Simpson, Togher, Power, & Gillett, 2013;Shorland & Douglas, 2010). Stress and anxiety are associated with difficulty expressing and comprehending a message.…”