With the recent news of Gabrielle Giffords post-trauma recovery, there has been an increased interest in acquired brain injuries, and a search for answers. Many of our home occupants have acquired brain injuries, and below are a few helpful pointers to helping these individuals with those types of disabilities.
Each person’s brain injury is unique. Different parts of the brain have different functions, and the damage depends on which part of the brain was injured. The effects range from mild to severe, and the severity of the injury is a good predictor of recovery. Generally the more severe the injury, the less likely it is that the survivor will return to normal.
For brain injury survivors, the results can be devastating. Their lives will be changed forever, and it isn’t easy to adjust to the changes.
Facts About Brain Injuries
- The brain can be damaged by bruising, bleeding, swelling, fever, lack of oxygen and strong, rapid forces.
- Males are twice as likely than females to sustain a brain injury.
- After one brain injury, survivors are at a three times greater risk for a second brain injury, and an eight times greater risk for subsequent injuries.
What Acquired Brain Injury Survivors Want Caregivers to Know
The website for the Brain Injury Association of Canada contains a list of things that ABI survivors would like their caregivers to know.
- It takes courage to keep going after a brain injury.
- Regardless of challenges, treat us with dignity, respect, and love.
- We rely on your good advice.
- Tell us when improvement will take a long time.
- Get to know us as a person and learn to communicate with us.
- We need your encouragement to do our best.
- Positive feedback is far better than patronization.
- We need to take a risk now and then.
- It is difficult for our old friends to “handle” the injury, and it is difficult for us to make new friends.
