Brain injury rehabilitation: Risk, autonomy and self-determination
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The role of the multidisciplinary team in balancing patients’ risk, autonomy, and self-determination during brain injury inpatient rehabilitation: a social worker’s perspective.
IRAS ID
343988
Contact name
Jennifer Lynch
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Univeristity of Hertfordshire
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 24 days
Research summary
This study is being conducted in fulfilment of a Masters by Research degree.
An Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is defined, as a non-degenerative injury to the brain occurring since birth. The term ABI includes both traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries (Department of Health & Social Care, 2022). Brain injury continues to rise at an alarming rate in the UK (Headway, 2023). Statistics from 2019-20 highlight that there is one admission to hospital for brain injury every 90 seconds, one head injury every three minutes and one stroke every four minutes in the United Kingdom (Headway, 2020). In the UK, 1.3 million people live with an ABI related disability (Linden et al., 2023).
ABI is a significant issue for long term care (Holloway & Tasker, 2019). People living with ABI are now living longer due to developments in health care provision (Holloway & Tasker, 2019). Consequently, some continue to have complex needs which are often life-long (Holloway & Tasker, 2019).
In recent years, there has been advancement in social work research within the field of ABI which highlights the challenges that people with ABI and their families face. However more insight can be gleaned from a social work perspective.
The multidisciplinary team clearly plays a critical role in rehabilitation of brain injury individuals. However, there is limited literature on how professionals, patients and families explore risk, autonomy and self-determination within brain injury rehabilitation. This study will seek to explore how the professionals navigate ethical and clinical decision making.
Research Question: How does the multidisciplinary team balance patients’ risk, autonomy and self-determination when making decisions about the discharge outcome following inpatient brain injury rehabilitation?
Recruitment setting: NHS neuro-rehabilitation ward.
Participants: Adults with a brain injury, their family/informal carer and multidisciplinary professionals.
Methods: Qualitative approach - semi-structured interviews.
Duration: The study will last for approximately 12 months.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/YH/0249
Date of REC Opinion
5 Dec 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion