Background: People with severe acquired brain injury (ABI) often require high and ongoing levels of paid support, which is sometimes provided within a shared supported accommodation service (SSA). In Victoria there are more than 140 people with severe ABI living in shared supported accommodation services who have a similar level of disability as young people with ABI in residential aged care (RAC). Objectives: The aims of this article are twofold: (1) to describe the characteristics, support needs and level of community inclusion of people with an ABI living in shared SSA in Victoria and (2) to compare the characteristics, support needs, social contact, community integration and leisure participation of this group with a group of people with ABI under 50 years old living in RAC reported in a previous study. Participants: Information was obtained from SSA managers on 128 residents with an ABI, aged under 60 years, who were living in shared supported accommodation. Measures: Questionnaires were used to obtain information about the characteristics, support needs and occupational participation of participants. Support needs were measured utilising the Care and Needs Scale (CANS). Method: Questionnaires were sent to and completed by SSA managers. Results: Of the 39 SSA managers contacted, 32 provided information about the characteristics of 128 residents with ABI living in their facilities. While 72% of SSA residents accessed the community almost everyday or more often, 40% of this sample received a visit from a friend less often than once per year. Results of the CANS indicated that the SSA group required a similar level of support to the comparison group of people with ABI living in RAC, but went outside, participated in community based leisure activities, and visited friends significantly more often. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the frequency of visits to the facility from relatives or friends. Conclusion: Although the relationship between client outcomes and accommodation is a complex one, this study suggests that the type of accommodation and support has a significant impact on the frequency of community participation experienced people with ABI and high care needs.

Introduction: The La Trobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ) was developed to measure perceived social communication ability from various sources including the self-perceptions of individuals as well as those of others with whom they converse regularly (e.g., family members, friends and clinicians). It has been psychometrically evaluated with healthy young adults and adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and found to have acceptable reliability and validity. The present study was conducted to gauge the ability of the LCQ to distinguish between a group of adolescents who had sustained TBI and a control group of neurologically normal adolescents matched on the variables of socio-economic status (SES), age, gender and level of education completed. Method: Participants were 19 TBI dyads (TBI adolescents and close relatives) and 19 control dyads. All TBI adolescents had sustained severe injury (mean posttraumatic amnesia duration 33.76 days, SD 18.13) due to moving vehicle-related trauma. Mean age at the time of injury was 16.33 years (SD 1.67) and at the time of assessment 17.11years (SD 1.90). The LCQ was administered to all participants at home. Results: Perceptions of TBI adolescents and their relatives were significantly different from those of control dyads and consistent with a higher frequency of social communication difficulties in the TBI group. Difficulties reflected reduced conversational fluency and problems with managing the multiple demands of social discourse. Conclusions: The LCQ is a clinical tool that has sound potential to contribute to the multifaceted assessment of social communication in adolescents with TBI.

Introduction: The Paediatric Care and Needs Scale (PCANS) was developed to address the dearth of scales currently available for measuring support needs of children with acquired brain injury (ABI). The scale assesses environmental supports (both supervision and physical assistance) across 14 domains of everyday activities from support for personal hygiene to participation in leisure and social activities. This study aimed to determine support needs in typically developing children using the PCANS in a normative sample of Australian children. Methods: Participants were parents of typically developing children aged 5–14 years (N = 300) recruited from a range of schools in metropolitan Melbourne. Children with ABI, diagnosis of a neurological or developmental disorder, or significant medical condition were excluded. Thirty parents of children in each of 10 age levels, with approximately equal sex ratio were recruited. Results: Findings suggest that support needs vary according to age of the child (p < .01) but not sex of child or occupational status of the parent. Additionally, children were found to have significantly higher support needs for supervision compared with physical assistance across most of the domains of the PCANS (p < .01). A greater number of age differences across PCANS domains were also found in younger children (5 to 7 and 8 to 11 years) compared to the older age group (age 12–14 years). Conclusions: This study reports normative data for the PCANS using a sample of children stratified by age. Findings will provide an essential point of reference to help guide clinical interpretation of the PCANS for assessing support needs of children with ABI.