Social reintegration of TBI patients: a solution to provide long-term support.

BACKGROUND

This article evaluates the effectiveness of a workable long-term program to provide social support for TBI patients, based on the "Academy of Life" concept. Disability after TBI causes numerous disruptions of normal life, which affect the patient, the family, and society. The patient needs the particular kind of support the program was designed to provide.

MATERIAL/METHODS: The study involved 200 married couples with a TBI spouse previously enrolled in the "Academy of Life." The methods included documentation analysis, clinical interviews, the Family Bonds Scale, the Social Isolation Scale, and the Social Functions subscale from a battery used to evaluate QOL after TBI. The subjects were examined before and after completing the program.

RESULTS

In the first examination all types of family bonds were found to be severely weakened; there was deep social isolation, loneliness, sadness, a feeling of being surrounded by hostility, and no purposeful social activity. The most common form of support from significant others was pity and unwanted interference, accompanied by lack of understanding and social ostracism. In the second examination there was selective improvement of all parameters, significantly greater in patients without PTSD symptoms. The best effects were achieved in the reduction of social dysfunctions, the growth of purposeful social activity, and improvement in the type of support received, and a reduction of selected parameters of social isolation.

CONCLUSIONS

The program here described is selectively effective for the social reintegration of TBI-patients, especially those without PTSD symptoms.