"My Person" or "A Person": CarePartner and Practitioner Perceptions Caring for Persons in Disordered Consciousness

Research Objectives: Compare perceptions of carepartners (CP) and rehabilitation practitioners (RP) caring for a person in disordered consciousness (DoC) following brain injury.

Design: Qualitative, exploratory design.

Setting: Post-acute care (PAC) and community.

Participants: 16 CPs for persons in DoC. 21 RPs working in PAC.

Interventions: N/A

Main Outcome Measures: N/A

Results: CP and RP perceptions of personhood in persons in DoC are compared. The CP searching for “my person” through the recovery process and the RP searching for “a person”. CPs described this through subthemes of looking for their old person (“Just like the old Katie”,), searching for evidence their person is “in there” (“I am in here why can’t I get to you”) and the emergence of a “new person” (“he does the loudest laugh, I guess this is the new person”). In contrast RPs described their search for “a person”. RPs search for scientific proof of “a person”. They described this through subthemes of searching for consistent and purposeful behavior (“Is she truly consistent? Like 100%?”), cognitive dissonance associated with interpretation of observed behaviors (“Did I just see that?”), and the search for signs of consciousness (“it’s not a black and white thing”).

Conclusions: CPs and RPs for persons in DoC have different world views through which they see the person. These worldviews can lead to challenges with perceptions of recovery. A shared understanding of “my person” and “a person” is essential to ensure CPs and RPs exchange information supportive to everyone’s needs.

Author(s) Disclosures: There are no disclosures for any of the authors on this poster.