Abstract:
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) poses significant and enduring problems for both the survivors and caregivers. Chronic and ongoing issues often require individuals with TBI to be institutionalized in order to provide a safe environment capable of providing 24-hour supervision. For others, where the family assumes the primary caregiver role, substantial economic, emotional, and social costs are associated with meeting ongoing and supervision and care needs. Difficulties often arise for families in determining what is available, and how to access available resources. Given the NIDRR priority requesting projects that evaluate the impact of selected innovations on service delivery to persons with TBI, we have developed the Virtual Case Manager. The objective of this project is to address this issue by using state-of-the-art Internet website technology to enhance service support and delivery for individuals with TBI and their families. This objective will be achieved through development of a Virtual Case Manager (VCM), specifically focused on the needs of individuals with TBI and their family caregivers. The VCM guides individuals to educational resources, provide a framework to have their questions answered, and will specifically work to enhance utilization of healthcare and community services. This project will test the usability of a World Wide Web website being specifically designed for in-home installation to assist patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their caregivers in daily living.