The educational needs of Canadian homeless shelter workers related to traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has a higher prevalence in the homeless population. Caregivers to individuals who have TBIs may require better education surrounding screening, diagnosis and management of this disease to tailor interventions to their clients' needs.

Objective: To assess the insight and educational needs of homeless care providers in recognizing and dealing with clients who had experienced a TBI.

Methods: A survey assessing the point of views of homeless care providers across Canada regarding their level of confidence in identifying and managing symptoms of TBI.

Results: Eight-eight completed surveys were included. Overall, frontline workers expressed a moderate level of confidence in identifying and managing TBI, stating that educational initiatives in this context would be of high value to themselves and their clients.

Conclusions: Frontline workers to homeless clients rate their educational needs on the identification and management of TBI to be high such that educational initiatives for shelter workers across Canada may be beneficial to increase their knowledge in identifying and managing the TBI-related symptoms. Improved education would not only benefit frontline workers but may also have a positive effect on health outcomes for their clients.

Keywords: Homeless; frontline workers; traumatic brain injury.