Financial Vulnerability in Persons with TBI

Objectives: To examine factors that may affect financial vulnerability in persons who have sustained complicated mild to severe TBI. Financial vulnerability includes instability and quality of life, capacity to withstand financial shocks, and risk of exploitation. The central hypothesis is that economic, cognitive, mood, health, and environmental/social factors will predict financial vulnerability beyond what is accounted for by demographic and injury characteristics. Additionally, we expect that care-partner’s (e.g. a friend or family member who is actively involved with their life) ratings of their loved one’s financial decision making will provide unique value in predicting financial vulnerability of the person with TBI. The second main objective is to accomplish a detailed psychometric evaluation of tools used to assess financial vulnerability in other populations. This endeavor will both inform their use in clinical and research settings, and also enrich our theoretical understanding of financial vulnerability in TBI. Perhaps most important, this collaborative module would serve as the first large-scale, national estimate of the prevalence of problems in financial capacity and exploitation among adults with moderate to severe TBI.