Significant improvements in medical and neurosurgical interventions have resulted in a substantial increase in the number of persons surviving traumatic head injury. Consequently, more survivors and their families find themselves having to learn to cope and live with the impairments that accompany head injury. While the nature and degree of recovery is often difficult to pre-determine, most individuals require a comprehensive spectrum of medical, rehabilitative and supportive services to facilitate and maintain the recovery process. The complex nature of family life involving shared living-space, time and history, and the multiplicity of sequelae which impact on family life following traumatic head injury, challenge traditional research methods. In response, recent research studies, which centre on the alterations to family life following head injury, have endeavoured to include qualitative dimensions along with quantitative measures in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of the difficulties faced by families. These studies also fall short of investigating the deeper dimensions of family life, namely the intersubjective realm. Using an existential-phenomenological research approach, we have undertaken an indepth investigation of one family whose young adult son sustained a traumatic head injury resulting in severe impairment including loss of communication and movement. Applying an adapted version of Giorgi's systematized phenomenological method, our investigation revealed a temporal unfolding of three phases through which the family moved in its experience of living with a traumatically head-injured person: a pre-accident life-world, a phase of living with the immediate experience of the accident and a readjusting phase where family members worked to recreate and regain a sense of familial wholeness. As well, the disruption and disconnection experienced by family members following the accident was shown to originate from a deeper disruption at the foundational level of human existence. The structural matrix of themes that constituted our research family's life-world following this tragic accident was dominated by the themes of brokenness and disconnection, a restricted life-world, a disparity between inner and outer family life and a call to care. The Heideggerian theme of care was the family's existential response to the "broken" existence and near loss of their family member. It emerged as the underlying theme which held together and guided the reconfigured familial structure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/9870 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Clark, Elaine Leslie. |
| Contributors | Mook, Bertha, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 336 p. |
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