Treatment of Social Competence in Military Veterans, Service Members, and Civilians with Traumatic Brain Injury.

摘要

Impairments in social competence are among the most prevalent sequelae after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Without successful social skills a person is often isolated, in conflict with others, and denied access to social and vocational opportunities. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a manualized group treatment program to improve and maintain social competence for individuals with TBI with identified social skill deficits. The Group Interactive Structured Treatment (GIST) - Social Competence program is a holistic, dual-disciplinary intervention targeting the pervasive interpersonal and communication problems that often interfere with participation at work, home, school and in the community after TBI. During the second year of this project, all sites completed the Pilot portion of this study. The Pilot study enabled us to accomplish the following: (1) train clinicians involved on this project and give them experience and feedback implementing the GIST treatment; (2) refine the alternative intervention at Craig Hospital; (3) gain experience with the assessment tools for this project; and (4) modify the protocol for the RCT based on the experience during the Pilot. All modifications to the protocol for the RCT have been made and approved by all local IRB s and by the HRPO. Five of the six site began actively recruiting for the RCT during this second year; two sites have begun the first wave of the RCT intervention.