Family Forward: Promoting Family Adaptation Following Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury

ABSTRACT

This article describes a new and innovative social work intervention, Family Forward, designed to promote early adaptation of the family system after the onset of a child’s acquired brain injury. Family Forward is integrated into inpatient rehabilitation services provided to the injured child and recognizes the important role of family in child rehabilitation outcomes and the parallel process of recovery for the child and family following an injury. Family Forward is informed by clinical practice, existing research in family adaptation after pediatric acquired brain injury, the resiliency model of family adjustment and adaptation, and family therapy theories and approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Acquired brain injury
• family adaptation
• family functioning
• intervention
• pediatric
• psychosocial
• rehabilitation
• social work

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Kate Lawless who was helpful when we were deciding on a title for the intervention.

Notes on contributors

Lyndal Hickey, DipT, BSW, MClinFamTher, is a Senior Rehabilitation Social Worker at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. She has extensive clinical and teaching experience as a social worker and family therapist in the fields of health, disability, and family preservation. Her research interests include family adaptation and family interventions following pediatric acquired brain injury and she is conducting her PhD research in this area. She is a member of the International Network of Social Workers in Acquired Brain Injury and Victorian Subacute Childhood Stroke Advisory Committee.

Vicki Anderson, BA (Hons), MA (Clin Neuropsych), PhD, is a pediatric neuropsychologist; Director of Psychology at the Royal Children’s Hospital; and Director, Clinical Sciences Research, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She has published more than 300 papers and five books, and has more than $20 million in competitive research funds. She is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia and the Australian Psychological Society, and a founding fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Scientists.

Brigid Jordan, BSW, PhD, is Associate Professor of Pediatric Social Work at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Melbourne, and heads the Social and Mental Health Research Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She has more than 30 years’ clinical experience in social work and infant mental health at the Royal Children’s Hospital. She cofounded the master’s course in infant mental health offered through the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne. She is a past president of the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health, has served on the board of directors of the World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH), and received the WAIMH Affiliate Award in 2008 for her contribution to the field of infant mental health. She has published on infant crying and feeding problems, the impact of cardiac surgery on infants and families, postnatal depression, and infants at risk of abuse and neglect. She is the lead author of the Specialist Practice Resource: Infants and Their Families, written for the Victorian Department of Human Services.