Changes in supervision needs following participation in a residential post-acute brain injury rehabilitation programme

Objective: Supervision needs typically increase following moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Research assessing the impact of TBI residential rehabilitation programmes on supervision needs is limited. Research design: Prospective cross-sectional study. Methods and procedures: Ninety-four participants with moderate-to-severe TBI admitted to a post-acute brain injury rehabilitation programme (PABIR) were administered the supervision rating scale (SRS) at admission and at 1 month post-discharge. To account for spontaneous neurological recovery, patients were separated into those who were less than 1 year (L1Y, n=55) or greater than 1 year (G1Y, n=39) post-injury. Experimental intervention: None. Main outcomes and results: A mixed factorial design yielded a significant interaction (F(1, 92)=18.2; p < 0.0001) with post-hoc results revealing that the L1Y group improved more dramatically in terms of supervision needs than the G1Y group. Using reliable change methodologies, 52.7 of the L1Y demonstrated decreasing scores on the SRS vs 20.5 of the G1Y group. Conclusions: Decreases in supervision needs following PABIR can be found, even after accounting for the impact of spontaneous neurological recovery both at the group and individual level.