Peer-Delivered Interventions for Caregivers in the ICU with a Focus on Severe Acute Brain Injury: A Scoping Review

Approximately 50% of family caregivers of patients with severe acute brain injury (SABI) admitted to intensive care units experience clinically significant anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress. Peer-delivered interventions may be a sustainable way to provide social connection, emotional support, and evidence-based coping skills for family caregivers of patients with SABI to improve their mental health and well-being. The aim of this scoping review was to examine existing peer-delivered interventions for family caregivers of adult patients with SABI admitted to neurocritical and other critical care units. We set broad inclusion criteria and identified ten examples of peer-delivered interventions for family caregivers of adult patients with critical illness, of which only two were tailored to the needs of caregivers for patients who had experienced SABI. Our results indicated that (1) very few examples of peer-delivered interventions for this population exist, (2) all existing examples are professional-led (e.g., nurse-led) multifamily support groups, and (3) existing interventions demonstrate mixed results. Future research is needed to develop and evaluate peer-delivered interventions, including testing different models of peer-delivered interventions (e.g., one-to-one peer mentorship), programs that provide skills and support to caregivers after discharge, and skills-based formats that are tailored to the unique needs of SABI caregivers.