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Making Connections After Brain Injury: A Guide for Social Peer Mentors

Categories: Being a Caregiver, Living with Brain Injury

Making Connections After Brain Injury A Guide for Social Peer Mentor

This guide was created by Margaret A. Struchen, Ph.D.; DeLisa West, Ph.D.; Niki Cannon; LaTricia Eckenrode; Patricia Backus, CCC-SLP; Shawn Jaffrey, CTRS; Melissa Gautreau, B.S.; Jerome S. Caroselli, Ph.D.; and Lisa Keenan, Ph.D. Download the full PDF to find the following content:

  • Role of the Mentor
  • Ground Rules for Social Peer Mentors
  • What is a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?
  • What kinds of challenges might your peer partner have related to TBI?
  • Skills to Help your Peer Partner Develop
  • Documentation – Keeping track of mentoring activities
  • Handling Emergency or Problem Situations
  • Community Resources

Here is an excerpt of this guide:

Introduction

We hope the following information will help to answer some of your questions about what being a social peer mentor is all about. This manual is designed to be a resource you can use to help you in mentoring others, to come up with social activities that they enjoy, and to assist others in making and keeping friendships. The manual will cover much of the information that you will be going over in the training sessions with the therapist. You can then keep this manual with you as a reference after you complete the training sessions. In addition to the training sessions and this manual, you are encouraged to contact the On-Call Therapist if you have any questions or need assistance at anytime after you begin mentoring. The On-Call Therapist is there to help you with information and problem-solving, should you need any assistance.

We hope you will find the role of being a social peer mentor to be both rewarding and challenging. Helping others to develop satisfying social activities and relationships can make a very positive difference in their lives. Remember that a good sense of humor and sense of fun can make this experience rewarding for both you and your peer partners. We applaud your willingness to use your time to help others!

To read the rest of Making Connections After Brain Injury: A Guide for Social Peer Mentors, click here.