The Carer's Way Ahead: Helping Families Manage with Challenging Behaviour following Traumatic Brain Injury

Managing challenging behaviour in the home is very difficult for families dealing with an adult relative with a brain injury. It is often difficult to access specialist support, and assistance from a psychologist can be costly and represent a barrier to accessing useful treatment, particularly for those with geographical limitations. In light of this, we recently developed ‘The Carers' Way Ahead’, an internet based program specifically tailored for Australian carers managing adult family members with traumatic brain injury. It is a step by step program, training carers how to implement an treatment approaches to behaviour management. We aim to determine if the program is effective in: 1. Reducing the frequency and intensity of challenging behaviours in the family member with brain injury 2. Improving the well-being of carers compared to families who are not receiving clinical input, including greater social problem solving, decreased strain, increased mood, improved satisfaction with life and improved family relations 3. Yielding health benefits in terms of quality of life and economic benefit Participants will complete a baseline assessment where they will be asked to fill out various questionnaires. They will then be randomly allocated to receive ‘immediate treatment’ or ‘deferred treatment’ (i.e., waitlist control group). Treatment will involve the family member completing 'The Carer's Way Ahead' program. These include two psychoeducational modules, four modules addressing specific challenging behaviours (i.e., apathy, disinhibition, social difficulties, and aggression) and a self-care module to assist carers manage stress, low mood and other emotional states. Participants will complete these modules over a six to eight week period with support by a clinical psychologist (accessed remotely). They will then complete a post-assessment In the waitlist/deferred condition, participants will be asked to wait 10 weeks before gaining access to the online platform. They will attend a second assessment prior to commencement.