Brain injuries

Aim: To identify factors reported with negative and positive outcomes for caregivers of the traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury cohorts, to investigate what interventions have been studied to support carers and to report what effectiveness has been found. Methods: Scoping systematic review. Electronic databases and websites were searched from 1990 to December 2015. Studies were agreed for inclusion using pre-defined criteria. Relevant information from included studies was extracted and quality assessment was completed.

Despite calls for health and social services to respond to the needs of informal carers, there is little evidence to guide practioners in the best way to provide support and/or information in situations of complex need such as brain injury. This study addressed such an intervention in a prospective descriptive study, using both qualitative and quantitative methodology. Eighty-nine patients who had been admitted to a regional neurorehabilitation unit for management of traumatic or haemorrhagic brain injuries were consecutively discharged to the community over a period of 12 months.