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The maintenance of friendships after severe traumatic brain injury

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2020

Tennille Bertram ,
Leanne Togher ,
Emma Power  and
Jacinta Douglas Open the ORCID record for Jacinta Douglas [Opens in a new window]
Tennille Bertram*
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Leanne Togher
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Emma Power
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Jacinta Douglas
Affiliation:
La Trobe University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: tennille_17@hotmail.com
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Abstract

Objective:

The aim of this qualitative study was to understand processes involved in the maintenance and development of friendships after a person sustains a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Method:

Four people with severe TBI from rural settings in Australia identified one-to-two friends to be interviewed. A total of nine friends participated in a semi-structured interview. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and data was analyzed using principles of grounded theory.

Results:

The overall conceptualisation that emerged from the data described the process of friends actively placing themselves within the friendship with the person with TBI. Two major processes were evident which enabled friends to actively place themselves within the friendship. They were (1) making sense of the TBI and its consequences and (2) maintaining normality in the friendship.

Conclusions:

Friendships can be maintained following a TBI when friends actively place themselves within the friendships. Friends are able to do this when they make sense of the TBI and its consequences and maintain normality. There are a variety of ways that friends achieve this.

Keywords

Traumatic brain injuryfriendscognitive-communicationqualitative
Type
Articles
Information
Brain Impairment , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 79 - 91
Copyright
© Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment 2020

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