Predominant theories regarding adjustment and adaptation from the 1960s to mid 1980 are examined. Medical literature relating to outcomes after traumatic brain injury is examined. The gloom in major texts is surprising. The lack of definition of the commonly used term ???long-term??? is discussed. The relative lack of research to guide advice about very long-term prognoses remains a major concern. There are a number of ways of defining reality. Some come from an observer???s view of a person???s life. Some come from the reports of a significant other in the life of the person with TBI. Others come from the words or writings of the person who sustained a serious TBI. Quantitative research excels at summarising data and reaching generalisations based on statistical projections. Qualitative research excels at telling the story from the person???s viewpoint, providing the rich descriptive detail that sets quantitative results into their human context. An opportunistic sample of people who suffered a very severe TBI in 1981 was traced and narratives of their experiences since their injury obtained, either written or converted to text from interview. The texts were analysed using a qualitative technique based on grounded theory. The results of the analysis, the fact that a variety of approaches were used by people to deal with their problems, possible reasons for negative prognoses, and the limitations of the study are highlighted. Possible reasons why negativity appears to pervade the thinking of some health professionals involved with people with TBI, and possible directions for the future in therapy and research are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/258801 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Hill, Heather B, Public Health & Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Public Health and Community Medicine |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Heather B Hill, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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