Effects of Peer Mentoring on Caregivers of Patients With Acquired Brain Injury

Family caregivers often take on the demands of long-term caregiving after ABI. Early efforts to prepare family caregivers for the caregiving role after discharge from acute ABI inpatient rehabilitation may be beneficial in many ways. This study will look at the impact of participation in a one-to-one peer mentor program on the use of family support services and caregivers' emotional health and well-being (depression symptoms, stress).

Participants in this study will include caregivers of patient admitted to the Shepherd Center ABI inpatient rehabilitation unit. Caregivers will be randomly selected to participate in the one-to-one mentor program. The program will include visits with a peer mentor who is the caregiver of an individual with an acquired brain injury. Participants will be able to choose a peer mentor that matches their personal situation and preferences. They will meet with the peer mentor about once a week during the patient's stay at Shepherd Center and may continue with phone calls up to 30 days post-discharge. Participants will be asked to complete a brief evaluation after each peer mentor interaction to determine the value of the interactions and their interest in continuing visits. Participants will be asked to take part in three interviews that will last 10-15 minutes. The first will be within the first two weeks at Shepherd Center and the second will be a few days after discharge. A third interview will be conducted by phone about 30 days post discharge.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Acquired Brain Injury; Family Members
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: one-to-one peer mentoring

Detailed Description

The one-to-one peer mentor intervention will be evaluated for effectiveness on caregiver outcomes and use of family support services. 40 participants will be enrolled to assess the impact of one-on-one peer mentor relationships through the completion of the Kingston Caregiver Stress Scale (KCSS), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and participation in family support classes.

Participants will be recruited, based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, via in person meeting, by the study's research coordinator at Shepherd Center. Once a recruited subject expresses interest in participating in the study, the research coordinator will go over the informed consent form with the participant and enroll them into the study.

Once informed consent is obtained, enrolled participants will be asked to answer questions about their demographics and psychological well-being (PHQ-9 and KCSS). At this time, the participant will be randomized into the peer mentor intervention group or the control group (receiving general peer support under usual care).

1. Usual Care Peer Support Family support services offered at Shepherd Center under usual care involves peer mentoring, community support, brain injury education classes, and workshops. Within 5-10 days of admission, the caregiver of the patient is introduced to the peer support team. Caregivers are seen by peer mentors within the family support services on a referral basis from therapists, nurses, counselors, or physicians or on request from the caregivers/family. There are no scheduled interactions between peer support and the caregiver, nor is the caregiver assigned a peer mentor. The family is made aware of resources, but participation is optional for the family/caregiver. Access to the ABI Peer Support Facebook page is also available and the page is maintained by the Shepherd Peer Mentors.
2. One-to-One Mentoring Caregiver will be matched based on characteristics such as age, date of patient injury, level of patient injury, cause of patient injury, marital status, work status before and after patient injury, interests, and leisure activities. After participant is matched with a peer mentor, they will be required to have at least one weekly one-to-one interaction from time of match until 30 days post- discharge. The use of family support services by the participant will be monitored by peer mentor reported interactions, as well as attendance in family support classes. The participant will be asked to briefly review each weekly scheduled one-to-one interaction to ensure mentorship needs are being met on behalf of the participant.

Participant use of family support services offered by Shepherd Center will be monitored by attendance and by self-reported use of resources by caregiver, to peer mentors. Peer support documentation is recorded after each interaction by the peer mentor. Information logged includes the date, duration of interaction, type of interaction, and topics discussed. Attempts made at communicating with caregiver is also documented by the peer mentor within the database. C

Before discharge from Shepherd Center, the participant will be asked to answer questions about their medical history, family history, and psychological well-being. At 30 days post discharge, participants will be asked to answer questions about their psychological well-being (PHQ-9, KCSS). Those in the intervention group will also be asked to give feedback on the one-to-one peer mentor program (One-to-one Peer Mentor Initiative Survey).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 41
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Georgia
    • Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30309
      • Shepherd Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patient admitted for rehabilitation off acquired brain injury Planned discharge to home Family caregiver aged 18 years or older English-speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

• Discharge location is not home

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: One-to-One Peer Mentoring; Caregiver will be matched based on characteristics such as age, date of patient injury, level of patient injury, cause of patient injury, marital status, work status before and after patient injury, interests, and leisure activities. After participant is matched with a peer mentor, they will be required to have at least one weekly one-to-one interaction from time of match until 30 days post- discharge.	Behavioral: one-to-one peer mentoring; Weekly meetings with a peer family caregiver
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Usual Care; Participants received the usual discharge planning and family support services offered by the ABI program. These services include nurse instruction in care routines, case management support for discharge, peer support services, referral to family counseling and community services as indicated, and general information resources about brain injury. Participants in both the intervention and usual care groups also had access to the online peer support community created for ABI caregivers (facebook.com/shepherdbi.peers). In addition, usual care participants could request one-to-one visits with peer mentors and, indeed, most usual care participants received at least one peer mentoring visit.	Behavioral: one-to-one peer mentoring; Weekly meetings with a peer family caregiver

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Participation in family support services	Number of peer support meetings, family orientation classes, and caregiver self-management classes attended by family caregivers during the inpatient stay.	Attendance documented for all classes and meetings held during patients' inpatient stay; average inpatient length of stay is 52 days
Change in Kingston Caregiver Stress Scale (KCSS) scores	Caregiver stress and burden; scores range from 10-50; higher score reflects higher stress	1) baseline, at time of enrollment in the study; 2) within 72 hours of discharge to home; 3) 30-days post-discharge
Change in Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9) scores	Caregiver depressive symptoms; scores range from 0-27; higher score reflects higher depression	1) baseline, at time of enrollment in the study; 2) within 72 hours of discharge to home; 3) 30-days post-discharge

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Shepherd Center, Atlanta GA

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): January 8, 2019
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): January 30, 2021
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): January 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 8, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 15, 2021
• First Posted (ACTUAL): April 20, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): April 20, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 15, 2021
• Last Verified: April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Family Caregivers; Acquired Brain Injury; Peer-to-peer mentoring in self management; Caregiver stress and burden
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Craniocerebral Trauma; Trauma, Nervous System; Brain Injuries; Wounds and Injuries
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1543747

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No