[ARTICLE] Finding a new balance in life: a qualitative study on perceived long-term needs of people with acquired brain injury and partners – Full Text

ABSTRACT

Objective: Although the long-term consequences of acquired brain injury are frequent and diverse, care and support over the longer term is an under-addressed issue. This study aims to identify the perceived needs of people with acquired brain injury and their partners.

Methods: Interviews with four focus groups of people with brain injury (n = 17) and three partner groups (n = 19) were audio- and videotaped, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using inductive content analysis.

Results: Needs were perceived on the intrapersonal, social, healthcare and societal levels, focusing on three themes: 1) Adaptation to changes, including awareness of consequences, acceptance, role changes and dealing with these; 2) Understanding from relatives/friends, professionals, institutions and society; 3) Timely, individualized care, involving information, transition to home, searching for support, peer support and support for partner/family.

Discussion: The variety and complexity of needs show that people with brain injury and their partners need to find a new balance in order to live a fulfilling life despite the consequences of brain injury. The overarching need for continuity of care from the transition to home onwards provides important implications for supporting the process of learning how to live well with brain injury.

Introduction

Survival rates of people with acquired brain injury (PwABI) have increased in the last decades due to the improvement of acute medical care (1,2). Living with brain injury, many experience problems in the longer-term problems, which are often primarily psychosocial in nature (3–8). They include difficulties with interpersonal relationships, work, leisure activities, personality changes, behavioral problems, cognitive deficits and emotional problems (1,6,9,10). New difficulties may even emerge in the long term due to changing circumstances (6,11), for example, when one loses their caregiver and loses support or when one becomes a grandparent but experiences difficulties with caring for their grandchild. Long-term consequences of stroke not only affect the autonomy and well-being of people with brain injury but also impacts family members, specifically partners, who usually fulfill caregiver roles after the brain injury of their loved one (12,13).

In the Netherlands, different forms of care and support for longer-term problems are available and provided by several disciplines, such as psychologists, medical doctors, social workers and physiotherapists. However, there seems to be a mismatch between the available services and the actual day-to-day needs of PwABI and their families in the long term (14). Unmet needs for PwABI as reported in the literature involve understanding the injury, improving emotional difficulties and stress, activities of daily living, communication and finding employment (6,15–18). In addition, PwABI have difficulty finding and accessing services to support them with these issues (16–19). Partners may have needs in direct relation to the problems of the PwABI, such as coping with behavioral and emotional issues, but they also have needs of their own, including respite from caregiving and emotional and social support (13,15,18).

Many studies on needs covered a time span limited to the first few years after the injury (17,20–22), but there is limited research on longer-term needs of PwABI and their partners residing in the community. Studies on longer-term problems are of a less recent date (15,19). Organization of care is subject to continuous change, with an increasing importance being placed on the perspective of the service users. According to the 2018–2030 Action Plan for Stroke (23), more research is necessary to elucidate the needs of patients and carers in order to guide current innovations in the provision and organization of care services. Therefore, the current study aims to complement the existing literature by qualitatively exploring the perceived long-term needs both of PwABI and of their partners. In this study, discussions on care needs were embedded within topics of living with brain injury or with a partner with brain injury to elucidate day-to-day needs and corresponding health-care needs.[…]

 

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