PRIMARY CAREGIVERS OF PERSONS WITH BRAIN INJURY - LIFE CHANGE 1 YEAR AFTER INJURY

The impact of a traumatic brain injury on the family of the injured pe rson is just beginning to be explored. In the current study, 61 primar y caregivers were contacted at 1 year following injury. They completed the Relative and Friend Support Index, Social Support Index, Trauma C omplaints List and the Life Change Question. The majority of caregiver s indicated at least mild negative life change following the brain inj ury. Greater social support was correlated with less life change and g reater injury severity was correlated with negative life change. Neith er of these relationships was found to be significant at the 0.05 leve l. A significant positive correlation was found between caregivers' pe rception of deficits and the degree of negative life change. Perceived deficits accounted for the greatest amount of variance in life change followed by relative and friend support when all variables were enter ed into a stepwise regression. Further analyses indicated that the mos t significant factor of the Trauma Complaints List in predicting life change may be problems with cognition, which accounted for a significa nt amount of the variance in life change. Implications for counselling and further research regarding caregivers of persons with brain injur y are discussed.