'Family first' - feasibility and pilot outcomes of a community intervention for families of children in recovery following brain injury.

Purpose: Feasibility and pilot outcomes of a new community-based program for families of children with acquired brain injury (ABI) are presented. Interventions, delivered by home-visiting and teletherapy, were underpinned by problem-solving therapy, narrative meaning making, goal-directed interventions and community system psychoeducation.

Methods: Eighty-three families of children, who had sustained an ABI before 12 years of age, had an average of 13 sessions of the 'Family First' (FF) intervention.

Analysis of Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) scores in consecutive vegetative and minimally conscious state patients.

Consensus guidelines defining minimally conscious state (MCS) have been available for some years. However, to date, few measures have been developed that are particularly suited to monitoring MCS patients and there are limited clinical outcome data. The objective of the study was to determine the value of serial repeated assessments using the Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) to identify changes in vegetative state (VS) and MCS patients.