Understanding Social Support and Friendship: Implications for Intervention After Acquired Brain Injury

Abstract

This article reviews current literature on social support and friendship, loneliness and social isolation, and discusses these in the context of disability and specifically acquired brain injury. The examination provides a backdrop for considering interventions which aim to promote or regenerate friendships in the lives of people with this injury. The social consequences for individuals who have sustained an acquired brain injury have been well documented and are briefly reviewed. An understanding of the social support and friendship literature, reviewed in this article, is helpful for practitioners in designing interventions in the lives of this group of people, whose limited friendship and social support systems compromise quality of life and inclusion in the community. The article describes interventions that have been attempted to facilitate network building and friendship development for vulnerable or disadvantaged people in a wide range of contexts. The role of informal support systems is also discussed. A critique of these interventions is also presented and the conclusion reached is that while such models are not perfect and are often not rigorously evaluated, it is critical to provide assistance in order to achieve genuine social inclusion of people with acquired brain injury. It is their human right.