Building Therapist Capacity for Brain Injury Care

Research By: Shari Wade, PhD

Post Date: August 2, 2024 | Publish Date: August 2024

Rehabilitation Medicine | Top Scientific Achievement

A national implementation study led by Shari Wade, PhD, in the Division of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s, demonstrates how virtual training can expand therapist capacity to deliver Teen Online Problem Solving (TOPS)—an evidence-based program supporting adolescents with acquired brain injuries (ABI).

The study involved training more than 250 psychologists, social workers, and speech–language pathologists at 15 hospitals across North America between 2020 and 2021. Details were published in August 2024 in Rehabilitation Psychology.

Researchers used the RE-AIM implementation framework to examine how therapists learned, adopted, and applied TOPS in real-world settings. Most trainees reported feeling comfortable or very confident using the program, praising the hands-on, clinician-centered approach and family-based therapeutic model. Therapists identified the online format as a strength, noting its accessibility for families and adaptability to individual patient needs. However, they also cited challenges, such as family engagement, comorbid mental health concerns, and technology barriers.

“Training clinicians to understand both the neurological and behavioral aspects of recovery is essential,” Wade says. “Programs like TOPS help bridge the gap between research and clinical care so that more families can access evidence-based support.”

By equipping providers with the tools and confidence to deliver behavioral health interventions through telehealth, this work marks an important step toward improving access to care for adolescents recovering from brain injuries. The team has plans to next expand training options through self-paced modules and a “train-the-trainer” model to support sustainable, large-scale implementation.

About the study

Cincinnati Children’s co-authors also included Jamie Patronick, PhD; Julia Rabin, PhD; Brianna Maggard, PhD; and Aayush Dubey, PhD. Collaborators also included experts with the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

This work was funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI; DI-2018C3-14566), the State of Ohio, Ohio Development Services Agency, Ohio Third Frontier (Grant TECG2019-0159), and the Cincinnati Children’s Innovation Fund.

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Publication Information

Original title:	Moving from research to clinical care: Building therapist capacity to deliver the teen online problem-solving program for acquired brain injuries in adolescence
Published in:	Rehabilitation Psychology
Publish date:	August 2024

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