Grant: Planning Grants-Priority Announcement:Partnerships for Health System Improvement

Depression is one of the most common mental health symptoms after traumatic brain injury. Since patients with traumatic brain injury depression experience poorer recoveries than those without, depression should be treated quickly to help patients feel better faster. Internet-delivered therapies for depression have been shown to help the general population. However, no internet-based treatment program has been created to meet the specific needs of patients with traumatic brain injury. This is especially important since these patients may also have difficulty with thinking processes such as concentration and memory. The study team plans to bring together various individuals including patients, researchers, healthcare providers and technology experts for a series of four planning meetings. The overall goal of these meetings will be to determine the best approaches to take in the development of an internet-delivered therapy program to treat patients with traumatic brain injury and depression. The first meeting will involve patients with traumatic brain injury and depression to discuss what they would like to see in such a therapy program. The second meeting will bring together a group of healthcare providers and research experts to share experiences and generate ideas related to the development, customization, and foundation of the proposed program. The third meeting aims to partner with a group of technology specialists to examine the options and cost of the proposed program. Finally, the last meeting will bring together key individuals from the first three meetings generate action plans for moving the project forward and to conduct future research to measure the use and performance of the newly developed program.