[lead]Congratulations to this year’s Allen Martin Research Scholarship Recipient Suzana Hercegovac.[/lead]
Suzana, an OT research student from the University of South Australia, received the scholarship for her research proposal on “Participation in Volunteering Roles Following Acquired Brain Injury”.
Return to paid work is often seen as a milestone of successful rehabilitation following severe injury. In the case of acquired brain injury (ABI), some may require up to 10 years to return to their pre-injury levels of employment, if at all. There has been considerable research on the return to paid work, but there is little research into other productive roles, in particular volunteer roles.
Volunteering could potentially be used to aid the transition from post-injury recovery into employment roles by providing individuals with the opportunity to connect to the community, to gain new knowledge and skills, and to improve self-esteem and feelings of self-efficacy by engaging in productive roles.
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“I’m very humbled by this award, and I believe this grant money will be used in a way that will greatly benefit my learning, and will also ultimately assist in the development of services for people with acquired brain injury,”
Suzana said.
“I really look forward to sharing my findings with you at the completion of this scholarship.”
If you missed this year’s Allen Martin Memorial Lecture, you can find the podcast and transcript here.
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