Telerehabilitation support for families at home caring for individuals in prolonged states of reduced consciousness

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the use of telerehabilitation to support families caring at home for individuals with prolonged states of reduced consciousness.

Design: A comparison group approach.

Participants: Participants were recruited from a special program that is part of a Model Systems brain injury program located in the Southeast. Five patients, ranging from Rancho 1 to Rancho 3 were discharged home with family members as the primary caregivers.

Procedures: Participant families were followed for 4 to 8 weeks via videophone. Follow-up telephone surveys were conducted with a family member 6 to 9 months after discharge and compared with a similar group that had not received the videophone follow-up.

Main outcome measures: Present living status, number of emergency room visits, number of hospitalizations, the caregivers' perceptions of functional status and care needs, readmission for rehabilitation and perceived family needs as measured by the Family Needs Questionnaire (FNQ).

Results: More patients in the videoconferencing group were still living at home and had returned for rehabilitation. On the FNQ, families in the videophone group reported more of their needs met than families in the comparison group.

Conclusions: The use of videoconferencing to bridge the transition to home for families caring for a family member at the Rancho 1 to Rancho 3 level may assist families in successfully caring for the individual in the home and reducing the number of perceived family needs.