Facilitating a return to productive roles following acquired brain injury: The impact of pre-injury work level, current abilities, and neuropsychological performance

ABSTRACT

The primary aim of this study was to examine predictors of Return to Productive Roles (RTPR) in individuals with ABI following participation in a community-based RTPR intervention. One hundred and thirty participants were inducted to an ABI-specific RTPR programme. At induction, information on clinical and social demographics, previous education and employment roles were collected. Participants underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment at baseline and completed assessments of disability, mental health and community integration. Participants were followed up at the end of their programme to assess RTPR. Three out of four participants who entered the RTPR programme returned to productive roles. Despite the relatively high levels of anxiety and depression in the sample, people who returned to productive roles were not significantly less anxious or depressed than those who did not. Logistic regression suggested that participants who returned to productive roles following the programme had higher levels of pre-ABI work engagement, less disability and performed better on neuropsychological assessment in terms of their language skills. Results suggest that these factors which cut across specific prior experience, cognitive performance, and social and disability areas of functioning represent barriers to an effective return to productive roles for people with ABI accessing RTPR intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Brain injury
• rehabilitation
• employment
• neuropsychological assessment
• disability

Acknowledgement

This study was funded by a grant from POBAL under the Disability Activation Programme.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by POBAL [Disability Activation Grant. DACT0013].