| dc.description.abstract | This study is a qualitative evaluation of a community based social
service agency whose mandate is to provide services for persons living with
the effects of head injury. Designed to describe program operations from the
perspective of the stakeholder groups, the study was conducted over a nine
month period.
Brain Injury Rehabilitation Services (Inc.) is a community based,
rehabilitative program for persons with a head injury. The program consists
of an Interim Learning centre, a District Treatment Program and an Outreach
component. BIRS attempts to provide support for individuals with a head
injury. Individualized plans of service are developed, in part based on
neuropsychological functional assessments traditionally available to survivors
of head injury. Methods included a review of BIRS records, interviews, home
visits and observations. The researcher’s work was guided by a set of
research questions that were to be addressed with a purposive sampling of
clients, their families and significant others, staff, board members, government
officials, external agency personnel and agency personnel providing similar
services in other parts of the province. Questions focused on determining
"how" BIRS was operating vs determining outcome of intervention. The
findings describe how unplanned change can affect internal and external | |
