Evaluation of an Intervention Model for Family Crisis and Support

Evaluation of an Intervention Model for Family Crisis and Support (a Research Project Within the Traumatic Brain Injury Model System Grant)

To learn more about how a family treatment program helps people after brain injury. Specifically, do families feel better and function better after going through the program, and do patients feel better and function better after going through the program.

To evaluate the efficacy of a structured outpatient family intervention program (BIFI) on family members' emotional well being, life satisfaction, needs, and family functioning; and to evaluate the impact of the BIFI on the emotional well being, life satisfaction, functional independence, vocational status, and neurobehavioral functioning of persons with acquired brain injury (ABI).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Family members/caregiver friends and persons with acquired brain injury (ABI) who are at least three months postinjury. ABI is defined as damage to brain tissue caused by stroke, aneurysm, anoxia, or an external mechanical force as evidenced by: loss of consciousness, post traumatic amnesia (PTA), objective neurological findings, or skull fracture.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Families including individuals at imminent risk of psychiatric hospitalization, or in imminent danger of hurting themselves or others, as judged by the investigators.
• Individuals under 18 years of age.