Wecare

A resilience and wellbeing mentoring program for adults, as well as a program for young family members of icare participants and workers.

The wecare program seeks to build the knowledge, wellbeing and connections of families by providing information, strategies, tools and resources at any time post injury and when support is most needed.

Two wecare programs are currently available:

• Mentoring carers program for adults
• Carers and Young person program 5-18 year olds

Further information about the program can be found here: https://www.carersnsw.org.au/services-and-support/programs-services/wecare

Carers Way Ahead

An online program to provide family carers of people with brain injury specific strategies to deal with complex and challenging behaviours.

The Carer’s Way Ahead is an internet-based program specifically tailored for Australian carers and families managing someone with a traumatic brain injury. It is a step-by-step program teaching family members how to manage challenging behaviour in the home.

It is for adults aged 18+ who:

• Have a family member with a traumatic brain injury
• Find the behaviour of their family member challenging (i.e., they exhibit aggression, irritability, apathy etc.)
• Have access to a computer and reliable internet,

The program includes psychoeducational lessons on brain injury and behaviour, modules addressing specific challenging behaviours (i.e., disinhibition, apathy), and a module on self-care to assist carers/family members manage stress, low mood and other emotional states. Participants will be required to complete one module each week over a six-to-eight-week period. The program is free for research participants, and they will receive clinical support throughout the program by a clinical psychologist who is an expert in the field of traumatic brain injury and behaviour management.

For further information please visit our recruitment site:

https://redcap.link/thecarerswayahead

Alternatively, please don’t hesitate to contact t.wearne@unsw.edu.au

interact-ABI-lity

Learn how to interact more successfully with people who have a brain injury

interact-ABI-lity is a short, self-guided online course for family members, friends, support workers or anyone who interacts with people who have a brain injury. This free online course takes about 2 hours to complete and is designed for family members, friends, support workers, and professionals working in brain injury. This course was developed as part of a collaboration between The University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, Brain Injury Australia and Changineers, with funding support from icare NSW. The course includes opportunities to:

• Hear from people with a brain injury and their family members
• Learn about communication changes
• Learn how to support people with their communication
• Gain a certificate of completion

Find out more about interact-ABI-lity and enrol in the course at the Acquired Brain Injury Communication Lab at The University of Sydney.

convers-ABI-lity

A program about having better conversations together after a brain injury

convers-ABI-lity is a 10 week online program for a person with brain injury and their communication partner (a family member, friend, or support worker) to complete together, guided by a speech pathologist. This program is currently being developed and tested as part of a collaboration between The University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, Brain Injury Australia and Changineers, with funding support from icare NSW. The course includes:

• Setting goals to improve your conversations together
• Learning about how to approach conversations after a brain injury
• Practising your conversations together
• Reflecting on your conversations with the support of a speech pathologist

Contact the Acquired Brain Injury Communication Lab for more information about this program, or if you are interested in participating as a research volunteer.

TBI ConneCT

Conversation skills training program for people with a brain injury and their communication partners.

TBIconneCT is a program designed to help people with traumatic brain injury and their family members, friends or carers have better conversations together. TBIconneCT was based on the original TBI Express program but reduced in length and designed for clinicians to use with individual families. For more information please click on the links below:

• https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/our-research/research-centres/acquired-brain-injury-communication-lab/tbiconnect.html
• https://www.assbi.com.au/Sys/Store/Products/19608