Describing an Early Social Work Intervention Program for Families after Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

A necessary step to evaluating practice is the accurate specification of social work interventions. Interventions delivered to 27 families with a relative with traumatic brain injury (TBI) admitted to a specialist inpatient brain injury rehabilitation service were coded (655 hr of social work services). The most frequent interventions were counseling, education, and case management. Services addressed person-oriented (65%; e.g., adjustment to hospital, adjustment to disability, family conflict) and environment-oriented (35%; e.g., transport, accommodation, finance, legal, and immigration) issues. This is the first description of a family intervention program after TBI delivered in an inpatient setting and lays the groundwork for future evaluation.