NSW Brain Injury Rehabilitation Forum May 2011

 

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Building family resilience after traumatic injury: preliminary evaluation results for a new program
GRAHAME SIMPSON, Liverpool Hospital, BIRU

 

Title: Building family after traumatic injury: preliminary evaluation results for a new program

Authors: Simpson Graharne1, 2, Jones Kate1, Pfeiffer Daniella3, Unger Candice4, Oosthuizen Helen5', Francis Jackie6, Young Denise7

1Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit, Liverpool Hospital
2Rehabilitation Studies Unit, University of Sydney
3Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service, Westmead Hospital
4Spinal Outreach Service, Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney
5Moorong, Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney
6Spinal Injuries Unit, Prince of Wales Hospital
7MidWestern Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program, Bathurst

The Strength to Strength program has been developed and trialled over the past 2 years across six rehabilitation centres and one community agency in NSW. The program aims to build resilience among family members supporting relatives with traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury. The program comprises five sessions and is10 hours in duration. The evaluation design involves pre- post and follow-up assessments as well as a matched standard care group. The preliminary results reported here comprise the pre- and post-workshop data for the treatment group only.

A convenience sample of forty nine family members supporting a person with a traumatic brain injury (n=33) or spinal cord injury (n=16) participated in the trial of the new program. Outcome measures included the Positive and Negative Affect States (PANAS-X), the Resilience Scale (Wagnild and Young), the Resilience Scale for Adults, the Carer Burden Scale, a General Self-Efficacy Scale and Carer Self-Efficacy Scale.

No significant changes were found between pre- and post- scores on the outcome measures for the group as a whole (paired t-tests). Employing the Resilience Scale, the sample was then divided into high resilience (n=25) and low resilience groups (n=24) employing a median split. Analyses found that no significant changes between the pre- and post scores on the assessment measures for the high resilience group (paired t-tests). However, the low resilience group made significant improvements (p<O.05) in Positive Affect, resilience scores (Resilence Scale for Adults), General Self-efficacy and a trend (p=.055) for Carer Self-efficacy (paired t-tests).

These results show initial promise for the efficacy of the Strength to Strength program. Collection of further data to evaluate efficacy (follow-ups for treatment group, standard care group) is almost complete. The inclusion of high resilience families in the group might serve as useful models for families who are finding the adjustment process more challenging.