The development of a Family-Directed Behaviour Management (FDBM) Program following ABI

Background and Aims:Family members often become the primary caregivers following acquired brain injury and experience significant burdenand unmet support needs regarding the management of behaviour changes. Al-though evidence supports the involvement of family in behaviour managementinterventions, there are no validated approaches with an emphasis on fam-ily involvement. This study aims to develop and seek feedback regarding theFamily-Directed Behaviour Management (FDBM) programme, which is de-signed to empower family care givers to better manage challenging behavioursfollowing ABI in community settings.Methods:The development of the FDBM programme was informed by asystematic review examining family involvement in community-based be-havioural interventions following ABI (Fisher et al., 2015). The FDBMprogramme was then further validated and refined using a Delphi study,in which service providers (n=8) and family care givers (n=3) re-viewed the programme to reach consensus regarding the content and deliveryformat.Results:Findings of the systematic review were suggestive of a multiphaseintervention, including an education component and individualised sessions.The Delphi panel reached consensus on topics to be included in the FDBMprogramme and an appropriate delivery format, including a 4-week face-to-face education phase followed by six fortnightly individualised behaviourmanagement sessions.Conclusions:The Delphi process has made significant contributions to theFDBM programme by further refining and validating the content and meth-ods of delivery. The next stage of this research will include a preliminarystudy examining the acceptability and feasibility of the FDBM programme incommunity settings.