Family interventions after traumatic brain injury: A service example

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often exerts a major impact upon the family wi th high levels of stress and distress, particularly amongst primary carers, disruption to family life style and functioning, changes in family roles, and marital and sexual difficulties. In response to the documented impact u pon the family a range of family services have been advocated including fam ily education, counselling and support. This paper outlines family services developed within a community head injury service in the UK. The family ass essment programme comprises a relatives' screening questionnaire and struct ured interview schedules and ratings scales, some drawn from the family ass essment literature, others developed within the service. Four components of family intervention are described: an annual series of educational worksho ps; follow-up workshops; individual family support; and specialist marital counselling. Our experience of providing these family services over the las t 7 years is discussed along with the need for further evaluation of family assessment and interventions after TBI.