Accompanying citizen of persons with traumatic brain injury in a community integration project: An exploration of the role

BACKGROUND: The APIC (Citizen Accompaniment Project for Community Integration) is an innovative program that seeks to increase the community integration of people with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) by offering the support of an accompanying citizen (AC) in the accomplishment of significant life activities. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to better define the AC's role in this process, by underlining the mental health risks they face, the strategies they use, and the impacts the role has on their own lives. METHODS: This qualitative study is based on the analysis of interviews conducted with the AC following the first year of implementation. The data is part of a larger project aimed at the implementation and evaluation of APIC program. The data were analysed according to the rules of thematic content analysis, which encourages grouping main ideas into categories. This is an iterative process allowing for the constant emergence of new categories during the analysis. RESULTS: Accompaniment is full of joys and positive moments for the AC and participants. However, some difficult situations are encountered and the AC are constantly faced with challenges and constraints. The emerging study themes are as follows: the environment, the characteristics of the person accompanied, the AC's personal limits, and the ambiguities in the accompanier-accompanied relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Five principles drawn from the results will help oversee this practice more efficiently and limit the mental health risks of accompaniers. These findings may permit further development of this type of program for people living with disabilities.