SPECIAL SYMPOSIUM: Where Is the Map? Navigating Health Care After TBI SS14

As a chronic condition, moderate-to-severe TBI results in sequelae that can affect health and well-being across the lifespan. However, many TBI survivors have unmet needs for services after injury. Healthcare access and quality is one of five domains of social determinants of health (SDoH) identified by the government health initiative, Healthy People 2030. Access to quality healthcare depends upon a number of social, environmental, and injury-related contextual factors. While financial barriers and inadequate health insurance are undeniable, there are nonfinancial barriers as well.

This symposium will present findings from studies regarding healthcare access after TBI with content including feedback from participants with lived experiences to learn about the challenges and facilitators of having their health care needs met. The introduction will present a conceptual model of healthcare access barriers that takes into account supply and demand aspects of healthcare. It will present data from a first phase of a mixed-methods study which utilized focus group methodology to better understand barriers to care faced by a diverse sample of individuals with TBI in an effort to supplement an established questionnaire on healthcare access and quality to improve its content validity for use among individuals with TBI.