Beskrivelse
Social networks after severe brain injury rehabilitation – patients’ and relatives’ strategies Rehabilitation of patients surviving severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is granted only short courses in specialized departments, followed by discharge to regional municipal rehabilitation. For many of these patients ‘community integration’ is seen as a critical aspect of successful service provision (Cummins & Lau, 2003). It is often assumed that social relationships will improve or opportunities for forming new relationships will increase, if people are employed or engaged in other productive activity. However, this is not always the case. It is shown that the effect of TBI for patient and their social relations can be devastating (Das-Gupta & Turner-Stokes, 2002) due to the new forms of strain on social networks and families confronted with a lifelong role as informal caregivers. The Bourdieusian understanding of social capital seems critical in maintaining the TBI patients’ social position across different societal fields. TBI patients are socially very heterogeneous and for some low positioned patients, this type of capital (especially close family/relatives) might to some degree compensate for lack of cultural and economic capital. In this study, background data from the Danish Head Trauma Database (DHD) is used in a social network analysis of 200 TBI patients 4 years after the brain injury to assess the nature and strengths of social ties (social capital) among patients. Preliminary findings on qualitative interviews with 25 TBI patients will also be presented on how processes of inequality are produced when considering the rehabilitation strategies applied by the patients.| Periode | 9 sep. 2016 |
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| Begivenhedstype | Konference |
| Placering | Birmingham, StorbritannienVis på kort |
| Grad af anerkendelse | International |