Caregiver perceptions of usual care home programs for persons with acquired brain injury: a qualitative descriptive study.
Elena V Donoso Brown, Kasey Stepansky, Sarah E Wallace and 2 others
PMID 39882065WHAT IT FOUND
Caregivers of people with acquired brain injury valued home programs but described limited training and repetitive exercises.
They mostly encouraged rather than directly participated, and reported motivation, boredom, fatigue, and system barriers as key to engagement.
Key findings
01Caregivers reported limited home program training, but participants also reported satisfaction with it.
02Verbal encouragement was the most common support, and some caregivers also provided direct setup or supervision.
03All participants found value in home programs, and caregivers saw the person's motivation as a key facilitator.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 8 caregivers were interviewed, and all were recruited from one rehabilitation hospital, so the themes may not represent other settings. All participants identified as white, and seven were spouses, so findings may not apply to caregivers of other backgrounds or relationships. Participants were retired or part-time, so the study did not capture full-time working caregivers. Home programs were not standardized and were created by therapist discretion, so caregivers were not all comparing the same type of program. The study asked caregivers only, not the person with ABI, so it describes caregiver perceptions rather than patient outcomes. Member checking involved only 4 of 8 participants and made no revisions, so participant validation was limited.
Declared interests
The authors reported financial support from the Encompass Health Corporation Grant 2021. The paper does not say whether this funder designed the study or wrote the manuscript.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that home programs improve recovery because all participants valued them. This study measured caregiver perceptions, not patient outcomes, and it did not compare a home program with no home program.