Mothers' experience of helping young adults with traumatic brain injury.

Purpose: To describe mothers' experience of helping young adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Design: Descriptive.

Methods: A convenience sample of participants from support groups for parents of young adults with TBI met the criteria of engaging in regular interaction or helping their children (aged 20 to 36 years). These young adults had suffered moderate or severe TBI from a motor vehicle collisions, sports-related injuries, or recreation-related injuries more than 6 months earlier. A descriptive phenomenological method was used. Three in-depth interviews were done with each mother over a 2-month period. Data were the mothers' perceptions, actions, and intentions pertaining to their experiences of helping the young adults.

Findings: Five phenomena that were structures of the experience were discerned, discussed with participants to obtain their feedback, and compared to the relevant literature. The five phenomena of the mothers' experiences were: reconnecting my child's brain, considering my child's safety, making our lives as normal as possible, dealing with our biggest problem, and advocating for my child.

Conclusions: The mothers continued rehabilitation efforts with the young adults, even when only minimal services were available to support their efforts. Mothers needed interventions to enhance their knowledge, and they and the young adults with TBI needed expanded community services.