Recovering Together: Building Resiliency after Acute Neurological Illness, Patient and Caregiver Workbook (Behavioral Medicine Interventions That Work)

Having an acute neurological illness (ANI; e.g., stroke, brain injury) is often traumatic for patients and the family or friends who support them. The sudden onset of symptoms, admission to an intensive care unit, and prognostic uncertainty can cause depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic stress, amongst other symptoms, in both patients and their informal caregivers. This distress is shared between patients and caregivers, and, if untreated can become chronic and interfere with a patient's recovery and the caregivers' quality of life. Addressing early emotional distress with both the patient and caregiver can help to manage and prevent chronic emotional distress in both.

Recovering Together (RT) is a 6-session resiliency intervention that aims to prevent chronic emotional distress following an ANI. This intervention integrates approaches including mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy in ways that decrease cognitive load and increase accessibility for clients. It teaches mindfulness skills, coping skills, and interpersonal skills.

This patient and caregiver workbook provides session-by-session instructions, scripts, in-session activities, and home practice assignments, which can be used in conjunction with the accompanying clinician guide. Corresponding materials available online provide additional opportunity for practice.

Ana-Maria Vranceanu, PhD is the David T. Rovee PhD and Joanne V. Rovee Endowed Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Founding Director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR) within the Department of Psychiatry at Mass General Brigham (MGB). She is a clinical psychologist who conducts federally funded research focused on the development, testing and implementation of psychosocial interventions for patients, care-partners and dyads in both hospital and community settings.

Victoria Grunberg, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a clinical psychologist in the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR) and Division of Newborn Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She leads the Education and Training Core at CHOIR and co-directs the Lifespan Health clinical psychology internship track at MGH. Her federally funded research aims to develop, test, and implement psychosocial interventions for families coping with critical care illness and stressful reproductive life events as well as for the staff who serve them.