Employment Problems Following Traumatic Brain Injury: Families Assess the Causes

Employment difficulties are a common and chronic sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI).1-3 Research on persons with all severities of brain injury consistently points to high unemployment rates. 45 In response to these findings, researchers have begun to identify the primary risk factors associated with employment difficulties after brain injury.2,5-7 Assessment of causative factors has relied on both objective and subjective methodologies, including: (1) neuropsychological tests; (2) injury demographics (e.g., duration of unconsciousness, length of posttraumatic amnesia), (3) ratings of employers and employment specialists; and (4) ratings of family members. In a recent study, Sale and colleagues 7 asked employment specialists to identifY the causes of premature job separation for participants in a supported employment program. These specialists rated 29 persons with brain injury who had