REVIEW article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Patient Centered Health Systems
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1575781
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations in the assessment and treatment of TBI and co-occurring conditions in military connected populationsView all 11 articles
The Family Wellness Program: A Bench to Bedside Translation of Behavioral and Social Science Research into a Clinical Program for Intimate Partners of Warfighters Following Traumatic Brain Injury
Provisionally accepted
- Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, United States
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This report details a bench to bedside translation of behavioral and social science research into a clinical program as a result of a collaboration between two United States Defense Health Agency Centers of Excellence for warfighter traumatic brain injury (TBI) and brain health. Identifying a gap in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measures, our team instigated a 7-year multisite effort to validate and develop generic and caregiver specific HRQOL domains for family members of warfighters and civilians with a TBI using state-of-the-science measurement development standards; the Traumatic Brain Injury Caregiver Quality of Life (TBI-CareQOL) measurement system. The TBI-CareQOL was integrated into the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center-Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence 15-Year Longitudinal TBI Study designed to address four elements in a Congressional mandate (NDAA FY2007 Sec721 Public Law 109-364). Based on findings from the 15-Year Longitudinal TBI study and larger body of related literature demonstrating the bidirectional associations between warfighter neurobehavioral outcomes and family distress, relevant TBI-CareQOL measures were integrated into the Family Wellness Program (FWP) for intimate partner (IP) beneficiaries of warfighters with TBI in treatment for chronic neurobehavioral symptoms across the Defense Intrepid Network for Traumatic Brain Injury and Brain Health (DIN). The FWP screens IPs for clinically elevated HRQOL symptoms with clinical follow up offered in alignment with operations at each DIN treatment center and military base. In July 2024, the FWP was launched at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and is currently expanding across the DIN.
Keywords: Family, Intimate partner, Child, service member veteran, Traumatic Brain Injury, neurobehavioral, health-related quality of life, Treatment rehabilitation
Received: 10 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Brickell, Mercer, Baschenis, Lange, Sullivan and French. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tracey A Brickell, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, United States
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