Evaluating the needs of military and veterans' families in a polytrauma setting.

OBJECTIVE To examine the perceived importance of needs and the extent to which they are met among a sample of family members in an inpatient polytrauma setting. METHOD The Family Needs Questionnaire was administered to 44 family members of patients at the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center over a 30-month period. RESULTS Families rated health information needs as most important and most frequently met. conversely, family members rated emotional support and instrumental support needs as least important and most frequently unmet. CONCLUSION Preliminary data suggest that the similarity between family needs in military and civilian settings is noteworthy, and provide direction for development of empirically based family intervention models for polytrauma settings.