Improving training methods in brain injury rehabilitation

The effects of therapist training techniques upon treatment outcomes in traumatic brain injury (TBI) has not been widely studied. This study demonstrates that outcome scores are likely to increase when therapists work on outcome-related activities and use identified training methods. Six therapists working with five persons with TBI were subjects for this study. Therapists were targeted because their clients were not making progress on the functional independent measurement (FIM). Baseline teaching data were collected from videotapes, targeting 14 training elements within the areas of task, prompting, reinforcement, and client's behavior. Therapists were given feedback based upon the teaching diagnostic of the decision matrix. The results show that diagnostic-based intervention with therapists can result in direct, immediate, and obvious improvements in outcome measures across patients.