Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2016-5-4
The effectiveness of social communication partner training for adults with severe chronic TBI and their families using a measure of perceived communication ability
BACKGROUND: Training for communication partners of people with traumatic
brain injury (TBI) is efficacious when using blinded independent ratings of casual
conversations measured in the clinic. However, the question remains as to whether
participants with TBI and their significant other perceive changes to everyday social
communication as a result of training.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether treatment focused on improving the
conversational skills of everyday communication partners of people with severe TBI using a
program called TBI Express resulted in improvements in perceived
communicative ability as measured by the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ).
METHODS: Non randomized controlled trial comparing treatment of people with
TBI together with communication partners (JOINT) with treatment of people with TBI without
partner involvement (TBI SOLO) and a waitlist control group (CTRL) with follow-up at 6
months post-treatment. Forty-four outpatients from brain injury units in Sydney with
severe chronic acquired brain injuries were recruited. A further 27 eligible outpatients
refused to participate or could not be contacted. A total of 41 people completed treatment
and 38 completed 6 month follow up assessment. The measure of perceived communication
ability is the report of the participant with TBI and their partner on the LCQ.
RESULTS: Communication partner training (JOINT) improved conversational
performance relative to training the person with TBI alone and a waitlist control group on
the LCQ. The TBI SOLO group improved in terms of report on the LCQ relative to the CONTROL
group. Results were maintained at six months post-training.
CONCLUSION: Training communication partners of people with chronic severe
TBI using TBI Express led to perceived improvements in everyday
communication ability by both the person with TBI and their family member.
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