Replication of a Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial of Resource Facilitation to Improve Return to Work and School After Brain Injury

Objective: To determine the extent to which previous findings on the effectiveness of resource facilitation to impact return to work and school could be replicated. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Outpatient rehabilitation clinic. Participants: Outpatients with acquired brain injury (N=44). Intervention: Fifteen months of resource facilitation services. Main Outcome Measures: A revised version of the Vocational Independence Scale and the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 Participation Index. Results: Participants randomized to the resource facilitation group demonstrated a significant advantage in terms of rate and timing of return to productive community-based work relative to control participants. When examining only return to competitive work (and not return to school), 69% of the resource facilitation group was able to return compared with 50% of the control participants. Analyses of measures of participation in household and community activities revealed that both groups improved significantly over the 15-month study period, but no significant advantage for either group was demonstrated. Conclusions: This study replicates the positive impact of resource facilitation in improving productive community-based activity, including competitive employment and volunteering in the community. (C) 2016 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine