CARE4Carer: personalized caregiver support in rehabilitation for patients with acquired brain injury

Caregivers of patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) often experience high levels of

burden, which effects their physical and psychosocial well-being profoundly. Psychological

distress is reported mostly by caregiving spouses. Especially returning home after

rehabilitation appears to be a major hurdle for patients and their partners.

We propose a blended care (eHealth and face-to- face) intervention, which includes psycho-

education, skill-building and problem-solving, and is aimed at increasing feelings of mastery

in partners of ABI patients. The aim of this study is to implement and evaluate this blended

care support program.

We expect partners to experience an increased caregiver mastery. Furthermore, we expect

improvements on caregivers’ burden, strain, coping, care-related quality of life,

participation, family functioning and emotional functioning. For patients we expect

improvements on participation, family functioning and emotional functioning.

The aim is to implement and evaluate a blended care (eHealth and face-to-face) support program for partners of ABI patients to increase their mastery and abilities to cope with the caregiving situation and the cognitive and behavioral problems of their partner.

T0: 2 weeks after discharge

T1: 5 months after T0

T2: 4 months after T1

A blended care intervention which combines an online eHealth program with face-to-face counseling.