CONCLUSIONS

Findings

The evidence of our research supports the significant effects of treatment and the influence of the duration of the treatment on a better assessment of life areas and the quality of life of persons with acquired brain injury. Personal goals in rehabilitation can be set accordingly from well-defined assessments of life areas. Users achieve these through various rehabilitation programs within the framework of multidisciplinary treatment and with time-appropriate modifications in the treatment and according to the individual's progress/declines and needs. Achieving long-term rehabilitation goals is a predictor of long-term improvement in mental health (Preede et al., 2021).

Within the framework of daily interactions and decisions of experts, support staff and nursing staff, we must ensure that the user becomes an active partner in rehabilitation. At the same time, we should not neglect the knowledge and information of their relatives. It is a participatory model for all involved. The model takes into account the autonomy and abilities of the user, and encourages experts to address ethical and methodological concerns, judgment and doubts in rehabilitation and in the selection of interventions (Vešligaj Damiš, 2020).

Strengths and limitations of the research

One of the limitations of our research that is important to point out is the lack of previous research in the field of goal-oriented long-term rehabilitation and its effects on the quality of life after acquired brain injury. On the other hand, as the main strength or our research, we can point out, that the research represents an important contribution to understanding the importance of long-term rehabilitation for persons with acquired brain injury.

Another weakness of our research is poor representativeness of our sample. The sample is relatively small and it only includes persons included in one of the institutions that provide long-term rehabilitation for persons with acquired brain injury.

Recommendations for practice

In further research, that will examine the effect of long-term rehabilitation on the quality of life after brain injury, it would be interesting to check the difference in the quality of life between persons who are included in the long-term rehabilitation service, and those who are not. It would also be good to include a greater sample of participants and also to include those, participating in the long-term rehabilitation program in other institutions, not just Center Naprej. It would be interesting to carry out a longitudinal study of Quality of life of persons with acquired brain injury that are included in long-term rehabilitation. As already mentioned above, in the future, if the Wheel of life instrument is used again for assessing satisfaction with various areas of life, it would be necessary to carry out a research to check the validity and reliability of the instrument.