Authors

  1. Douglas, Jacinta PhD
  2. Dyson, Maree PhD
  3. Foreman, Peter MAPS

Article Content

Objectives: The Supported Leisure Options (SLO) Project set out to establish a structured means by which client outcomes associated with people accessing community-based SLO might be described. The aim was to evaluate the usefulness of a set of measures to gain an understanding of the personal effects of being engaged in SLO. Hypotheses: Clients who participate in SLO activities regularly (>=weekly) over a 6-month period will show measurable changes in the domains of mental health, social support, community integration, and quality of life. Participants: Twenty-five adults (M age = 36.95 years) who had been referred to community leisure programs participated in the study. All participants had sustained severe injuries (posttraumatic amnesia > 1 month; range 48 to > 120 days). On average, 10 years had elapsed since injury. Methods: A repeated measures design over 6 months was used. Assessment involved a semistructured interview, global subjective rating of quality of life (QOL), and administration of standardized measures: MOS SF-12v2, NFI-Depression subscale, Instrumental-Expressive Social Support-Scale, and CIQ. Results: The group of clients who participated regularly in SLO over 6 months reported positive and statistically significant changes in depression, mental health, and social integration. Quantitative trends were supported by themes evident in the qualitative interview data. Conclusions: Three scales were shown to be statistically sensitive to change in outcome over a 6-month period (the NFI depression subscale, the SF12v2 mental health subscale, and the CIQ social integration subscale). These findings support the use of these tools in the evaluation of outcomes for people with TBI.