The brain injury rehabilitation scale (BIRS): a measure of change during post-acute rehabilitation.

This article describes the development of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Scale (BIRS), a 20-item scale rating attention, memory, cognition, goal-directed behaviour, social interaction, and adjustment to injury. The BIRS was designed to provide ratings of clinical progress during post-acute rehabilitation from the perspective of the patient, the family and the treating staff. The BIRS was administered to two groups. Group one included five patients in a post-acute rehabilitation programme who were administered the BIRS each week for the 24 weeks of the programme. Group two was a control group composed of 21 college students. The BIRS was administered to each control subject for three consecutive weeks. The BIRS was found to be a sensitive and reliable measure of rehabilitation progress. Inter-rater reliability was high. Further evaluation of the BIRS is warranted.