The research is looking into ways to enhance people’s rehabilitation journey post brain injury. This will extend our current understanding to beyond the individual with the injury. It is widely accepted that psychosocial wellbeing and rehabilitation outcomes are influenced by how the patient is able to adjust to life with a brain injury, yet the significance of the family context within which the patient is living has not been adequately addressed.
By examining coping styles and other potential factors which may influence patients’ adaptive coping strategies, this research will identify practices which lead to positive adjustment to the experience of living with a chronic condition such as brain injury.
The findings of the research will mean that Headway Cambridgeshire can develop targeted interventions for those at risk of poor adjustment. For example, courses can be designed to tackle maladaptive coping strategies which could cause long term adjustment issues for the whole family. As well as directly informing service development, the project will also contribute to the academic literature regarding many areas of post-injury recovery including coping, adjustment and family functioning.
On behalf of Headway Cambridgeshire.