Abstract
M.A.
Caring for traumatically brain-injured patients has become of greater concern as a result of advancing medical technology and fewer fatal injuries. Parents experience the advent of traumatic brain injury with more hope for recovery as a result of such medical advances. Recovery from paediatric traumatic brain injury is not however very well understood, and this is not well communicated to parents of such children. Parents are therefore often left caring for children who will never develop as well as their peers or who will never be able to sufficiently care for themselves. Thus, parents face a lifetime of difficult caregiving related choices and a lifetime of sorrow. Their daily lives become restricted because of their caregiving obligations.
Much research has been done regarding the caregiver of the traumatically brain-injured patient. Research has commonly focused on the parents (as a unit), the mother, the siblings and the children of the traumatically brain-injured individual. Relatively little research has been done pertaining to the father who also experiences the trauma, cares for the child and maintains a caring environment in the home. The male psyche is different from the female psyche. His daily experiences are different, his role as male in the family, and possibly his role as breadwinner, might cause his emotions to be different from the emotions experienced by the rest of the family. Often cultural expectations might change the way he would behave in the face of sudden and unexpected damage to his child’s brain. Yet there is a dearth in research pertaining to the father’s phenomenological experiences in such circumstances.
The current study aims to address this dearth. An existential-phenomenological approach was used to unearth themes pertinent to the experience of the father. This approach allowed for any new and unexpected themes to arise and allowed for rich insight into the life-worlds of the fathers, and how they made meaning of their thrownness.
Three fathers were sourced through their personal neurologists who gained their consent to participate in the study, in order to avoid any privacy difficulties. The researcher then interviewed these fathers. The interviews, along with notes of their gestures made, were transcribed and analysed. This allowed for deep insight into how they constructed their worlds and for important themes to arise and be compared to the available literature.
The fathers’ life-worlds contained themes of love, uncertainty, change and anger. Some felt that the experience had led toward positive change within them and that they had found ways of making meaning of their situations. Each father mentioned different coping strategies; however, all the fathers focused their efforts around managing the head-injury and rehabilitation. Two fathers thought that others do not understand their hardships and the changes to their lives as a result of their child’s injury. They indicated loneliness. The third father communicated more easily with others. He felt that others understood if one often spoke to them about the situation. The father’s lives were centred on their injured children and they appreciated every small step of recovery their children made.
The current study has many limitations such as its small sample and the impact of a female researcher. Future research, however, could build on the findings of the current study by considering its findings and limitations and finding a greater sample, for example. Future studies may also wish to further consider the fathers’ existence in terms of Binswanger’s concepts of Umwelt, Mitwelt and Eigenwelt and investigate how fathers cope. The current study could lead to various developments within various arenas, in particular regarding therapeutic endeavours with families and fathers so as to encourage healthy coping styles and life narratives within the family system. This should occur early after the trauma so as to prevent later development of clinical psychological difficulties. Other simple adjustments could be made in the manner in which such cases are dealt with over the long term. For example case-managers could be allocated who, amongst other things, could ensure that relevant information on brain injury, rehabilitation facilities or services and medical services is available to the family and caretakers for short term as well as long term reference.