Improving Well-Being After TBI Through Structured Volunteer Activity

Craig Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Traumatic Brain Injury

Treatments: Behavioral: HOPE - Helping Others through Purpose and Engagement

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01728350

H133A120032-1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this project is to determine if participating in volunteer activity improves the psychological well-being of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Enrollment: 74 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Has sustained a documented TBI that required inpatient rehabilitation;
• is at least one year post TBI;
• is age 18 or older;
• is able to commit to completing the entire three month volunteer placement;
• is English or Spanish speaking;
• receives written medical release from a physician to participate in this intervention;
• is rated a level 1-2 on the Supervision Rating Scale (functionally independent during the day);
• provides informed consent to participate

Exclusion criteria

• Is employed or engaged in regularly scheduled volunteer work outside of the intervention;
• obtains a score of 25 or above on the SWLS, which is 0.5 SD above the TBIMS NDB mean;
• unable to travel to assessments and placement; even with study transportation assistance;
• has been convicted of a felony, which would prohibit volunteer placement;
• unable to communicate effectively to complete standardized assessments;
• has cognitive impairment that precludes completion of baseline testing;

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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74 participants in 2 patient groups

Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will participate in a novel structured volunteering intervention called HOPE - Helping Others through Purpose and Engagement. This intervention involves orientation, training, volunteer placement assistance, and problem solving and support.

Treatment:

Behavioral: HOPE - Helping Others through Purpose and Engagement

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants who are randomized to the control arm will be offered the HOPE intervention at the conclusion of study.