Community integration or community inclusion: are they the same and do we need to extend the benchmark for people with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) and other complex disabling conditions?

Speaker: Dr Ben Turner
Lecturer in Occupational Therapy, School of Health – University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC)

Community integration or community inclusion: are they the same and do we need to extend the benchmark for people with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) and other complex disabling conditions?

Returning to work after acquired brain injury remains a significant challenge, with outcomes shaped by a complex interplay of individual, workplace, and system-level factors. Despite the critical role of vocational rehabilitation in supporting meaningful employment and community participation, access to services remains uneven — heavily influenced by insurance coverage, employer awareness, and the capacity of disability employment services to meet the specific needs of people with ABI.

This presentation will present the findings of a recent scoping review conducted to explore factors that influence community inclusion for adults with complex disabling conditions (including ABI), from the perspective of people with lived experience and those who support their inclusion.  Across 42 studies included in the final review, 67 factors (29 enablers and 38 barriers) were identified and mapped to the ICF framework.  Collectively, the findings reinforce the need for policy and practice approaches that explicitly prioritise fostering community inclusion outcomes (beyond participation outcomes alone) across diverse community contexts.  

The presentation will also provide an update about the Peer supported Vocational Rehabilitation (PeerVR) study to facilitate meaningful employment outcomes for people with brain injury.

Join the Seminar via the Zoom link here.