Holding Resilience in Trust: Working Systemically With Families Following an Acquired Brain Injury.

The conceptualization of resilience following acquired brain injury needs to remain sensitive to the complex nature and enduring dimensions of trauma, loss, and stress. It is essential that a systemic and dynamic view be maintained with a focus on the key adaptation tasks that families face: grieving, restructuring, identity redefinition, and growing through adversity. These tasks are explored in a case example illustrating how these challenges reemerge across the life cycle. The key theme in this contribution is that resilience is a fluid property, a potential that practitioners and service systems can listen for, support, strengthen, and hold in trust.

Family-to-Family Link Up Program: a community-based initiative supporting families caring for someone with an acquired brain injury.

INTRODUCTION: The Family To Family Link Up Program (f2f Link Up) is a pilot program aimed to promote connections between families who have a family member with an Acquired Brain Injury. METHODS: A total of 46 families participated in the program coordinated by The Bouverie Centre in Melbourne Victoria. Link-Ups, involving one or several sessions with members from two or more families. Link-Ups were conducted by Victorian metropolitan and regional ABI workers who were trained as Link-Up facilitators. A co-operative inquiry action research methodology was used to provide insights into the development and implementation of the program. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from families and facilitators on the effectiveness of the program and their experience of each Link Up session. RESULTS: Evaluation of the program showed positive impacts for both families and facilitators and provided useful feedback on program implementation issues, benefits and constraints of the program. CONCLUSIONS: The opportunity to meet other families in brief, time-limited contacts with a trained facilitator is a useful and needed addition to a range of supports that might assist families caring for a member with an acquired brain injury.

Families living with acquired brain injury: a multiple family group experience.

Although the use of multifamily group work is well established within the mental health field, it remains an underutilised method of treatment for families affected by brain injury. This paper reports on a pilot project exploring multifamily group work with families with a parent with an acquired brain injury. Six families met for a total of 12 sessions over a period of 6 months, with session themes informed by the Bouverie Family tasks model of adaptation post-ABI. The project was evaluated using qualitative and quantitative research methods, with pre, post group and 3 month follow up measures of individual, couple and family functioning. Parents reported generally reduced levels of personal distress at follow up but continuing high levels of marital and family dysfunction. Children were generally reported to be well functioning, although parents were particularly concerned about the impact of family disruption and violence on their children. Families were unequivocally positive about their participation in the group with benefits including reduced feelings of shame and isolation, provision of mutual support, increased understanding of brain injury, sharing of difficult experiences and movement from blame to compassion. Further research is warranted on the specific applications of multifamily group work with acquired brain injury.