Outcomes of post-acute rehabilitation for persons with brain injury.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the impact of multifaceted rehabilitation services on functional outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI) for individuals with significant physical and cognitive difficulties, as well as those with added behavioural complications.

DESIGN

Cohort, non-randomized, intervention study with a pre-test-post-test, follow-up design.

SETTING

Community integrated post-acute rehabilitation centre.

PARTICIPANTS

Individuals with primarily severe TBI receiving post-acute neurorehabilitation services (NR, n = 129) as well as similarly impaired individuals with additional antagonistic/disruptive behaviours receiving neurobehavioural services (NB, n = 76).

INTERVENTIONS

Multi-faceted behavioural and cognitive therapy methods delivered individually and in groups.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

The Functional Area Outcome Menu (FAOM), a behaviourally anchored 5-step scale rated by rehabilitation teams at three time periods.

CONCLUSIONS

The rehabilitation treatment model achieved significant functional gains of approximately 1.5 levels for neuropsychologically-impaired adults with and without associated behavioural and substance problems.