"Reconnected": Implementation of online communication training after acquired brain injury

Melissa Miao, "Reconnected": Implementation of online communication training after acquired brain injury

Winner – University of Technology Sydney VYT local competition (2022)

Read the research:
1) doi.org/10.2196/46396 and doi.org/10.2196/35080
2) doi.org/10.2196/38100 and doi.org/10.1177/20552076211035988

Melissa Miao’s research is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Postgraduate (PhD) Scholarship Grant [GNT1191284], an Australian Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, the UTS Faculty of Health, and the UTS Centre for Carer’s Research through the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Communities and Justice. The development of the Social Brain Toolkit was funded by icare NSW.

Transcript:

00:00:00

When a person suffers a brain injury, like stroke or traumatic brain injury, it can damage their ability to communicate and devastate their relationships.

00:00:10

The international recommendation to manage these difficulties is to train loved ones in the skills needed to repair conversations and help recovery.

00:00:19

But with more than 135 million people worldwide living with brain injury, there will never be enough clinicians to provide this treatment in person.

00:00:28

Although online treatments can help us reach more people, challenges like costs, time, pressure and disability can prevent them from being used.

00:00:38

But people cannot benefit from care they never receive. So I worked together with people with brain injury, their families and clinicians to adjust the design and roll out of our online treatments.

In less than a year, they reached 28 countries, improved communication knowledge and confidence, and restored relationships with loved ones.