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Symposium

Brain Injury

Caregiver Needs

Clinical Practice

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Grappling with Uncertainty: Care Partners and Rehabilitation Practitioners Hope for the Recovery of Persons in Disorders of Consciousness 4506

Saturday, November 2, 2024

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

Location: ROOM: Coronado A REGION: Tower Lobby Level >>> DIRECTIONS: From ACRM Registration desk, face the elephants and turn right. Proceed past the lobby elevators and turn right to enter the West Wing. Proceed down the corridor, turn right and then left. Proceed past the restrooms to the end of the hall and turn right. Coronado A is the last room on the right.

Corresponding Presenter(s)

Christina Papadimitriou, PhD

Associate Prof
Oakland University
Rochester, Michigan, United States

Slides

Presenter(s)

Ann Guernon, PhD, CCC-SLP

Associate Professor
Lewis University
Romeoville, Illinois, United States

Non-presenting author(s)

Jennifer A. Weaver, PhD, OTR/L

Assistant Professor
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

Non-Presenting Contributor(s)

Trudy Mallinson, PhD, OTR/L

Associate Dean for Health Sciences Research; Professor w. Tenure
The George Washington University
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
TK

Trisha Kot, n/a

Caregiver
Nick Kot Charity for TBI
Homer Glen, Illinois, United States
PF

Paige Ford

Caregiver collaborator
N/A
Summerville, Georgia, United States
MP

Marvin Paguio

Graduate Research Assistant
Oakland University
La Mirada, CA, United States
Sophia Slack (she/her/hers)

Research Assistant
George Washington University
Washington, DC, United States

The process of rehabilitation of persons with DoC is emotionally demanding for both RPs and CPs. This process is replete with prognostic uncertainty and therapeutic ambiguity (Papadimitriou et al 2022). Rehabilitation practitioners (RPs) and care partners (CPs) expressed discomfort navigating the “diagnostic muddle” (Mattingly 2010) of DoC rehabilitation. They expressed frustration, excitement, inspiration, disappointment, hopefulness, awe, dissonance, self-doubt, loss, confusion, and hopelessness. In this presentation, we focus on the practice of hoping that RPs and CPs use as a way of grappling with diagnostic and prognostic uncertainty. We show the similarities and unique ways that this practice is expressed in interviews and video data.
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Learning Objectives:

Discuss the similar and different worldviews that care partners and rehabilitation practitioners experience when working with patients in DoC
Appreciate hope as a practice, not a feeling, and how it is enacted during clinical encounters by rehabilitation practitioners and care partners.
Engage with presenters to foster working together to attend to the needs of care partners, patients, and practitioners.

Disclosure(s):

Christina Papadimitriou, PhD: No financial relationships to disclose

Ann Guernon, PhD, CCC-SLP: No financial relationships to disclose

Jennifer A. Weaver, PhD, OTR/L: No financial relationships to disclose

Sophia Slack: No financial relationships to disclose