Research Program

Research Project 3: Development of the Interview for Community Assessment of Needs (I-CAN)

The aim of this project is to further develop and evaluate the Interview for Community Assessment of Needs (I-CAN). The I-CAN is a unique instrument, as it documents an individual's needs from a person-centered perspective, based on the preferences and priorities for living life in the community of the person with a disability. This is in contrast to existing approaches to needs assessment, which, based in the medical model, document so-called "needs" of people with disabilities either using a service-centered perspective in which "needs" are derived from a menu of services already available, or a disablement-focused perspective in which "needs" are simply extrapolated from an inventory of the impairment-based challenges the person faces. One major purpose of this approach to defining needs is to provide the basis for documenting service needs over time and for providing systematic input to agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), describing the "research agenda" people with disabilities would establish if asked.

The I-CAN will be developed in two phases. First, cognitive interviewing methods will be used to optimize I-CAN phrasing. In the second phase, the I-CAN will be administered to 283 individuals with TBI. Their needs reported and solutions to needs suggested will be coded, using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The I-CAN's validity, reliability and utility will be evaluated across subgroups of individuals with TBI and across domains of community living.