Exploring Therapists’ Perceptions of Facilitating Family Involvement in Neurorehabilitation: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: There is a high prevalence of Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) in the Republic of Ireland and ABI can result in a range of physical, cognitive and communicative issues. Post

ABI patients frequently go through the inpatient rehabilitation process to help to remediate these impairments. Current research advocates the involvement of family members in the rehabilitation process and further research is needed to expand on what this involvement entails and how to best facilitate this. This study sought to explore therapists’ perceptions of this process of involving family members in the neurorehabilitation process.

Aim: To explore therapists’ perceptions of facilitating family involvement in neurorehabilitation.

Objectives:

● To explore therapists’ perceptions of the benefits and limitations to family involvement in the neurorehabilitation process post brain injury

● To explore the potential enablers and barriers to successfully involving family members in neurorehabilitation.

● To identify strategies used by therapists to involve families in the neurorehabilitation process.

Method: Qualitative design was employed in the form of semi-structured interviews with nine neurorehabilitation therapists working in the Republic of Ireland (RoI). Thematic

analysis was used to analyse the data collected from the interview process.

Conclusion: Therapists perceived the process of involving families positively and all actively employed strategies to try to help the process of involving families in neurorehabilitation. Implications: Further quantitative research to examine the effect of family involvement on

patient and family outcomes would be beneficial. Further investigation on how best to incorporate training on how to facilitate family involvement into rehabilitation professionals

training would help to support clinicians with the process.