R1: Increasing Social Networking Opportunities following TBI
New Measures
Social Activity Interview (SAI):
The R1 Working Committee developed a structured interview called the Social Activity Interview (SAI). The SAI was designed to help us collect detailed information about the types, frequencies, and importance of participation in various social activities. The SAI will be used to collect information about social participation from both potential social peer mentors and from those who want to receive mentoring.
The SAI contains some open-ended questions, such as "What do you like best about your social life?" and "What do you hope to get out of participating in the social peer mentoring program?" It also has a lot of questions about specific kinds of social activities (like visiting someone else's home or going to the movies). For each of these specific social activities, the person being interviewed will be asked how important that specific activity is to them, how often they do this activity, and with whom do they do the activity.
The SAI has been piloted (tested out) with several individuals as part of its development. When the peer mentoring study is completed, the Social Activity Interview will be made available to other clinicians, researchers, educators, brain injury support organizations, and other interested parties. We hope that the SAI will be a useful tool to help understand social participation for persons with traumatic brain injury. We also think that the SAI would be useful for other clinical and non-clinical populations as well.
Weekly Social Activity Schedule (WSAS):
Another measurement tool was developed by the R1 Working Committee to use for this project. The Weekly Social Activity Schedule (WSAS) was designed so that people participating in the mentoring program could keep track of the social activities in which they have participated. As the committee developed the WSAS, each person on the committee had the experience of trying the forms out by using it to track their own social activities. This helped the team develop a form that was "user-friendly". The WSAS is quick to fill out. The WSAS asks the person to track several things:
- The date of activity
- The type of activity
- With whom the activity was done
- Who planned the activity
- In addition, there is an opportunity for the person filling out the WSAS to rate the social contact on a scale ranging from "really good" to "really bad."
Monthly Mentor Log Sheet:
The R1 Working Committee also developed the form that the social peer mentor will fill out to keep track of their mentoring activities. This will help the mentor plan their activities and will help the research team ensure that those being mentored are having enough contact with their mentors.
Mentors will keep track of:
- The dates of mentoring activities
- The type of activities
- Who attended the activity
- Who planned the activity
- If the peer partner met a new person during activity
- In addition, there is an opportunity for the mentor to rate the social contact on a scale ranging from "really good" to "really bad."
Social Peer Mentor/Peer Partner Satisfaction Interview & Questionnaire:
The R1 Working Committee also devised interviews and questionnaires to assess how both social peer mentor and peer partner participants felt about their experiences with the social peer mentoring program. We are very interested in learning more about participants' individual experiences with the project, so that further development and refinement of the program can be implemented.
The interviews consist of a series of open-ended questions that ask about participants' thoughts and feelings about the screening process, evaluations, training sessions, training materials, and access to the on-call therapist and research team. In addition, participants are asked to discuss the things that they liked most about the program, as well as the things they found most challenging. Questionnaires are designed to gather additional information about specific components of the mentoring program.
Coming soon...
All of the above publications will be available to download from this website in the future.
