An inpatient neurobehavioural rehabilitation programme for persons with traumatic brain injury: overview of and outcome data for the Minnesota Neurorehabilitation Hospital.

OBJECTIVES

To review the specialized neurorehabilitation programme at the Minnesota Neurorehabilitation Hospital and evaluate such a programme on persons with TBI and severe neurobehavioural disorders.

PARTICIPANTS

Forty-four persons with TBI 3-years post-discharge from the programme.

OUTCOME MEASURES: Review of post-discharge status in regard to behavioural stabilization (frequency, intensity and severity of individual target behaviours), frequency and length of stay of psychiatric hospital readmission, stability of community placement and vocational status.

RESULTS

Ninety-seven per cent of patients target behaviours did not increase at the 3-year post-discharge follow-up; only 11% of patients had multiple post-discharge psychiatric admissions with 69% of those patients returning to initial community placement; 50% were employed at least part time.

CONCLUSIONS

Persons with TBI and severe neurobehavioural disorders demonstrated significant improvement on the outcome measures especially when considering patients pre-admission histories. Also, the majority of patients maintained these gains at 3-year post-discharge follow-up. Further study is certainly needed and welcomed determining specific, cost-effective treatments and services that can benefit persons with TBI and associated neurobehavioural disorders.