Research Projects

This proposed multisectoral engagement project brings together researchers, clinicians, community organizations, not-for-profit groups, and partners with lived experienced in acquired brain. These individuals interact with acquired brain injury in acute care, rehabilitation, and community settings. This project will identify key research priorities on health and care services for children, youth, and those transitioning to adult services with acquired brain injury in B.C.

Caring for a family member with a neurodevelopmental disability (NDD) can be challenging, often leading to high levels of anxiety and depression. To address this, our team of clinicians, scientists, caregivers, and trainees co-developed Caring for the Caregiver Acceptance and Commitment Training (CC-ACT), a group-based intervention. This intervention, co-led by trained caregivers and clinicians, helps caregivers develop skills to cope and improve their well-being. To date, we have successfully trained 80 caregivers and 100 clinicians from across Canada and shown how the program is helping families.

However, challenges remain to scaling up the intervention. Many underserved caregivers face barriers to accessing the intervention, including systemic inequities, language differences, and stigma. Additionally, long-term sustainability requires institutional support, such as funding and policy integration. To address these challenges, we will work with local teams to adapt the intervention to meet the needs of diverse, under-served caregivers (i.e., Black caregivers, fathers, neurodivergent caregivers, and Francophone caregivers). We will also establish regional and national groups to support sustainable scale-up by facilitating regional collaborations, developing policy recommendations, enhancing a national training model, and supporting advocacy. This project will improve the accessibility of CC-ACT, an evidence-based caregiver support intervention, and support its scale-up across Canada.