“Just a Concussion?”: Barriers to Help-Seeking for Traumatic Brain Injury amongst Individuals with Substance Use Disorder

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is common amongst individuals with a Substance Use Disorder (SUD; Lemsky, 2021). Experiencing symptoms of TBI while in treatment for a SUD can be challenging, and may lead to poorer recovery and health outcomes (Lemsky, 2021). Therefore, responding to TBI in individuals with a SUD is crucial for ensuring their wellbeing and ability to engage with rehabilitation. However, New Zealand research suggests that many TBIs go unaddressed (Feigin et al., 2013). The current study explored help-seeking behaviour for TBI amongst individuals admitted to a residential substance use rehabilitation programme. Clients admitted to the rehabilitation programme over a 16-month period participated in interviews, where they were asked about their TBI occurrence and treatment history. Content analysis of these interviews identified barriers to seeking help, while generalised linear mixed models examined individual factors associated with these barriers. Results suggest that individuals with a SUD face many internal and external barriers to seeking help after a head injury, with lack of knowledge and internal barriers being most commonly reported. Several individual factors were found to be associated with experiencing certain barriers. The results of this study take a crucial step toward addressing the dearth of research on help-seeking following TBIs amongst people with SUD. Findings also indicate a need for more effective TBI detection practices in emergency and hospital settings and public education initiatives targeting misinformed beliefs about head injuries.