Colleen McKay, a member of SPARC faculty, is a co-investigator of a traumatic brain injury study awarded to Community Brain Injury Services by the Commonwealth of Virginia

Evaluating Brain Injury Clubhouses and their effects on Neurobehavioral Functioning and Participation 

PI: Jason Young, MSW, Community Brain Injury Services(CBIS)

Description: Approximately 1.7 million people in the US sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year (Faul, et al, 2010). In 2013, about 2.8 million TBI related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths occurred in the United States (US). The cost of traumatic brain injuries in the US is over 48 billion each year and the cost of caring for a survivor of severe traumatic brain injury is between $600,000 and $1,875,000 over a lifetime. Persons with brain injury due to trauma, stroke, and other acquired causes often transition from rehabilitation to home and community settings with multiple, chronic impairments with the majority requiring assistance or supervision. Overall, few resources exist in Virginia to facilitate and support independent living after brain injury. The Clubhouse Model of service delivery has the potential to meet the long-term, well-being of people with brain injury-related disability and their families through skills development, support, and advocacy. The “Evaluating Brain Injury Clubhouses and their Effects on Neurobehavioral Functioning and Participation” project will evaluate the Clubhouse Model’s potential to serve the unmet needs of Virginia’s citizens with brain injury-related disability and improve their quality of care. 

The project involves implementing a program level data collection system (the Clubhouse Profile Questionnaire – CPQ) and other measures to standardize data concerning the injury and sociodemographic characteristics of people served, the level and duration of services provided, and outcomes generated by Virginia’s Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Clubhouses. This project will also describe and evaluate the effectiveness of ABI Clubhouses in meeting Virginia’s citizens’ needs. This project will compare the persons treated, services provided, and the outcomes generated by Virginia’s ABI Clubhouses to 3 ABI Clubhouses in the US and Canada to identify strengths and opportunities for growth. 

Ms. McKay will collaborate with the database developer and clubhouse partners to oversee the development of the CPQ database for brain injury clubhouses, she will develop the CPQ manual, provide training and technical assistance in the use of the CPQ, co-lead project meetings, data management, data analysis, present findings, and co-author reports and publications drawing on her extensive experience with database development and Clubhouse research.