Help for Carers > Illnesses, conditions and disabilities > Acquired brain injury

Acquired brain injury

Your concerns whilst looking after someone with a brain injury may include:

• Adapting to new ways of coping with any short and long term memory loss
• Helping him / her with recovery
• Keeping him / her safe
• Providing reassurance

People with brain injury may have memory loss, mood swings, changes in character or hyperactivity. They may also be in denial or have a physical injury.

Self-help tips for people with a brain injury, their family, carers and friends (added 4.1.11)

Never throw it away

- keep hold of all the information and useful contacts you are given - you never know when you may need it.

Getting things wrong can stop them getting it right

- when learning something new a person with a brain injury should be repeatedly guided through the process step by step - doing something incorrectly can impede the learning process.

Not too much all at once

- if you are helping to re-learn lost skills, only do it for a few minutes several times a day instead of in one long session. Over the following days/weeks/months, practise the learned information so that they remember what they have learnt - patience and perseverance is needed.

What did your last slave die of?

- it’s easy to continue doing too much for a person with a brain injury. The person can become too reliant on your help all the time. People with a brain injury should be encouraged to do things for themselves, even if they need a little support - they will never be able to do things for themselves if you do it for them all the time.

Meet greet upset

- people with a brain injury may lose social skills and this can sometimes put a strain on relationships with family and friends. They may have difficulty making eye contact, say the same thing every time they see someone, have difficulty showing emotion and many other difficulties. Some skill losses may be temporary, have to be relearned or be permanently lost. Where relearning is possible, it is important to provide non-judgmental feedback about appropriate and inappropriate social behaviours.

Crowds and noise can be very stressful

- crowded rooms or noisy places can be very hard to cope with because of the inability to differentiate between background noise and the person whose voice they are trying to hear. This can result in increased stress levels and frustration, resulting sometimes in an angry outburst. Try to avoid exposure to noisy environments for too long.

You can get more information from:

www.headway-in-west-sussex.org.uk - website for Headway in West Sussex, supporting people with acquired brain injury.

www.headway.org.uk - Headway (the brain injury association) aims are to promote understanding of all aspects of head injury and to provide information, support and services to people who have suffered a head injury, their family and carers.

www.cbituk.org - The Child Brain Injury Trust (CBIT) aims to improve the quality of life for all children and young people who have an acquired brain injury (ABI) and to enable them to achieve their full potential.

www.westsussexabi.co.uk - West Sussex Acquired Brain Injury Network website for carers, families and survivors of brain injury in West Sussex providing information about local and national services.

There are people who can help:

West Sussex Carers Support Services

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