Leveraging Social Support in Rehabilitation: Lessons Learned from a Scoping Review of Social Support Interventions 1952

Social support is closely associated with health and participation. Despite its promise as a target of rehabilitation interventions, it is under-explored in rehabilitation literature. This session presents an overview of social support concepts and theories, describes a scoping review of social support interventions, and discusses implications for rehabilitation research and practice. In a scoping review of social support interventions, we found common use of group and couples- or family-based interventions that leveraged social learning and relationship strengthening to improve perceived social support. Strategies for communication, reciprocal psychosocial support, and relationship sustainability were common, as were complementary intervention elements of problem-solving, psychoeducation, and behavior change strategies. We found that emotional support was the most commonly addressed domain of social support, while positive social interaction was infrequently addressed. Rehabilitation science can draw lessons learned from other fields and develop more targeted, evidence-based social support interventions that can improve health and participation outcomes.