Bridging Recovery Allies in Virtual Environments (BRAVE)

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Traumatic Brain Injury

Treatments: Behavioral: Virtual Envrionment for Social Communication

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03582228

HSC-SN-18-0491

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Bridging Recovery Allies in Virtual Environments (BRAVE) study aims to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of implementing a virtual environment (VE) social support group for social communication training among adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Enrollment: 13 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• subjects with a traumatic brain injury
• between the age of 18 and 80
• living in the community
• able to read and speak English,
• are more than 1-year post-injury
• are accessible by phone,
• report independent computer usage over the last 6 months
• have access to a computer meeting minimum specifications for the Learning in Virtual Environments (LIVE) platform (requires Windows)
• have broadband Internet connection,
• achieve a Galveston Orientation Assessment Test (GOAT) score >75 to ensure appropriate levels of cognition for the study
• and score >93.8 on the Western Battery Aphasia-Revised (WAB-R) scale to indicate sufficient communicative abilities to participate in a social support group and exit interview group.
• able to understand and independently consent for the study and provide written consent prior to enrollment in the study

Exclusion criteria

• verbal communication impairments will be excluded as measured by the WAB-R, as this study intends to focus on persons with social communication deficits rather than verbal deficits.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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13 participants in 1 patient group

Virtual Envrionment for Social Communication

Experimental group

Description:

Once the intervention begins, participants will meet online from home for one-hour sessions twice a week (twelve sessions over six weeks). Weekly sessions will follow a standardized format: * 15 minutes- Social support group (guided discussion of experiences related to weekly topic) * 20 minutes- Didactic instruction * 15 minutes- Role playing * 10 minutes- Debriefing and group feedback

Treatment:

Behavioral: Virtual Envrionment for Social Communication