Promoting financial empowerment after brain injury: findings from focus groups

Objective To cocreate and synthesize financial empowerment ideas for people living with acquired brain injury from multiple perspectives. Design We completed a qualitative descriptive study using focus-group methods. Content analysis was guided by deductive categorization across overlapping idea areas of educational products, human-interaction services, and advocacy approaches, followed by inductive idea subcategorization. Setting We held seven focus groups, five online and two in-person. Participants were recruited via community organization advertisements and convenience sampling. Four researchers analyzed transcripts using a triangulation approach. Participants Twenty-five adults (ages 18+) participated in seven different focus groups: 15 individuals living with acquired brain injury (five groups); 2 close others (one group); and 8 project advisory members (one group). Demographics varied across age, education, and time since injury; most were women. Results We generated 20 idea subcategories for financial empowerment after brain injury. Participants discussed ideas related to advocacy and service ideas more than products, but noted the salience of varied option availability to meet different needs across individuals. Participants living with brain injury identified seven unique ideas compared to the close other group and project advisory group. Conclusions Financial empowerment to address economic factors of financial capability and financial well-being after brain injury is important to brain injury rehabilitation, health, and well-being. Including lived experience voices provided unique ideas for addressing financial empowerment. Providing a spectrum of options and addressing contextualization factors could enhance the financial well-being of adults living with brain injury, which can contribute to brain injury recovery and improve community participation