Bridging Person-Centered Outcomes and Therapeutic Processes for College Students With Traumatic Brain Injury
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) weigh at least three factors when engaging in evidence-based practice: client perspectives, external scientific evidence, and clinical expertise (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2012). First, SLPs evaluate clients’ abilities and disabilities, and also assist clients in determining realistic and functional outcomes—that is, person-centered outcomes (PCOs). These goals are typically influenced by clients’ cultures, values, roles in society, and individualized aspirations. Second, this client-centered information is then compared and contrasted with the scientific evidence that has documented the benefits of intervention approaches used with clients who are similar and used to obtain these outcomes. Finally, SLPs’ expertise plays an integral role here too, including their prior experience with the intervention approach. The purpose of this article is to describe PCOs of individuals who are attending college during the chronic recovery phase of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and describe relationships between PCOs and therapeutic processes in a coaching approach with college students that includes the emerging evidence.