Home or away? Community rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury: a case report.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: A case report of AJ, a 25 year old man who had a severe traumatic brain injury and required ongoing rehabilitation. This study illustrates that community based rehabilitation can be the medium of choice to meet a client's rehabilitation needs.

METHOD: 3 separated episodes of rehabilitation were given over a two year period. Meaningful goals were negotiated with client and main carer throughout; the supportive and effective care system provided by his family allowed abilities to be maintained and progress between sessions and episodes of care.

RESULTS

Goals were achieved in each rehabilitation episode, maintained and progressed in each treatment break, with incremental reduction in levels of dependency for AJ, and improvement in quality of life for him and his family.

CONCLUSION

With a specialist professional team and good support network, the community is the environment of choice for rehabilitation of severely brain injured clients.