Brain Injury

For most people an acquired brain injury (ABI) comes as a result of a sudden and frightening event. It could result from a road traffic accident, a fall, an accident at work or as a result of a stroke or other medical condition. It is clearly a major life event both for the person who is brain injured and their families. Depending upon the severity of the brain injury all concerned may need a high level of support for some considerable time. Wives report that the brain injured person may look like their husbands but they don’t act like them. Parents may forget that they have partners and children. Families cannot understand why their previously mild mannered daughter now shows extreme aggression.

Research shows that brain injured people feel socially isolated and lonely and many are unable to start new relationships. Many depend upon family members to care for them or need to access carer support services. As a result of a lack of motivation and high levels of fatigue it is easy for brain injured people to lose their independence and feelings of self worth and confidence. Headway East Northants has received referrals from people who were brain injured many years before and who have spent the past few years sitting at home, without stimulation or opportunities to improve their lives. Brain injured survivors, once they have reached a level of self awareness, often become frustrated at the realisation they are no longer the person they were. We are also aware of families who continue to grieve at the loss of the person their family member was prior to the brain injury.

Brain injury is often called a hidden disability as many people will appear, on the surface at least, to be perfectly healthy and yet they may well be struggling with the most simple of cognitive functions or have behavioural or emotional difficulties. It is the cognitive or emotional and behavioural difficulties that brain injury survivors, their families and carers, find the most difficult to cope with. People can often empathise with someone in a wheelchair but if that person is behaving in a dis-inhibited way, or has anger management issues, this is often harder for families and the person themselves to deal with. This can lead to social isolation for both the person with a brain injury and their families and therefore there is a need to develop support networks for people in their own communities.

There is also a need to provide information and support to brain injury survivors and their families to help them understand the effects of brain injury and to provide support and strategies for dealing with the effects. Whilst there are other services in the community for people with a disability there are only two brain injury specific day services providing support to brain injury survivors and their families. One is Headway East Northants.

The brain is the most complex organ in the body and as a result the impact and effects of an injury are also highly complex. There are a wide variety of effects and every brain injury survivor is unique. Headway UK provides a wide variety of information on brain injury, the effects and the causes. We have provided links to this information, simply click on the appropriate link below or on the above navigation bar.