A SUPPORTED RELATIONSHIPS INTERVENTION TO INCREASE THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIES

A supported relationships intervention was used to increase the integr ated social contacts (ISCs) of 3 persons with traumatic brain injury ( TBI) who were each matched with 4 community participants. The interven tion consisted of asking participants to meet with their matched count erpart to engage in leisure activities once per week for 4 weeks. Addi tionally, community participants were provided with a brief training s ession on TBI, were given specific suggestions on interacting with the persons with TBI with whom they were matched, and received weekly pho ne calls from the researcher. Frequency of ISCs were analyzed with a m ultiple baseline design across participants. All 3 participants with T BI increased the frequency of ISCs after implementation of the support ed relationships intervention and continued to experience mole than ba seline levels of ISCs during 8 weeks of follow-up. These data suggest that social integration can be enhanced with a procedure requiring lim ited staff intervention.