Provision of resource facilitation services for individuals with acquired brain injury across the United States: results of a 2018 resource facilitator provider survey

ABSTRACT

Objective

 Resource Facilitation is a lesser-known service line within the field of brain injury rehabilitation and has been described as similar to case management, care coordination, and neuronavigation. The purpose of this project was to evaluate current Resource Facilitation programs and provide a comprehensive summary of program characteristics to work toward a common definition of Resource Facilitation services and inform future program development and evaluation frameworks.

Materials and Methods

An online survey was sent to all known Resource Facilitation programs in the US (N = 70).

Data Collection

 Completed through Survey Monkey including information related to program history, structure, population served, and outcomes measurement.

StatisticalAnalysis

Descriptive statistical analyses were applied.

Results

 Twenty-four of the 70 programs completed the survey, resulting in a 34% completion rate. This snapshot of the current definitions and activities demonstrated high variability across programs regarding structure, funding, eligibility, and data collection. Only 33% of programs reported having a program evaluation system.

Conclusions

This project provided a comprehensive summary of Resource Facilitation program characteristics and associated outcome metrics. The findings may be used to begin the formulation of a common definition of Resource Facilitation services, a program evaluation framework, and aid in establishing a common data set across programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Brain injury
• survey and questionnaires
• patient care management
• mental health services
• intersectional collaboration
• program evaluation

Acknowledgments

This study was, in part, supported by the Chronic Brain Injury Task Force of the Brain Injury Special Interest Group in the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine as well as funding from the Administration for Community Living (ACL) Traumatic Brain Injury State Partnership Program.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest.