Families of children with traumatic brain injuries : stressors and needs in the South African context

• Main Author: Oosthuizen, Deirdre
• Other Authors: Thomas, Kevin
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2014
• Subjects: Psychological Research
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9041

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-115). === [Background] The effects of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be devastating not only for the child that sustains the injury but also for his or her family. A TBI can negatively affect a child cognitively, emotionally, and behaviourally. In developing countries such as South Africa these negative effects of TBI are often compounded by the impact of other health crises such as HIV / AIDS, as well as by the existence of relatively few economic resources and a lack of rehabilitation services. Injury-related consequences, further compounded by developing world contexts, seem to suggest that families of children with TBI have many stressors and strains that need to be addressed. Aims. The current study sought to explore the needs and stressors of caregivers of children with TBI, and how local contextual factors contribute to those needs and stressors. [Methods] The sample consisted of four groups (n = 18 caregivers in each). These four groups included parents/caregivers who cared for a child with either a mild head injury, a moderate/severe head injury, or an orthopaedic injury, and a control group of caregivers with healthy children. The Parenting Stress Index, Family Burden of Injury Interview, and Family Needs Questionnaire were administered to each participant. [Results] South African caregivers of children with TBIs are critically stressed. Much of their stress is related to the child's behaviour and ways of relating to their caregiver. Caregivers in the Moderate/Severe TBI group reported experiencing particular difficulty with their own reactions to the injury, and reported feeling depressed and incompetent, as well as isolated and restricted by their role as parent. Caregivers also reported experiencing a need for health information, professional support, community support, involvement in the child's care, and emotional support. They reported, however, that few of these needs were being met. Results also showed that South African caregivers of children with TBI displayed more stressors and needs than similar samples in developed countries. [Conclusions] We suggest that a better understanding of the experience of families of children with TBIs is needed amongst TBI service providers. It is hoped that this study's results will aid that understanding, and that they will provide information for policy makers who can set into motion a sequence of services that more adequately aid both the child with TBI and his/her family.