Potential outcomes of brain injury including behaviour, cognitive, social, emotional.

Read more about the article Managing Celebrations after Brain Injury
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Managing Celebrations after Brain Injury

Celebrations after brain injury can be tricky. This article is updated and reposted each year before the end of year. Timed for when Christmas, Hannukah, New Year and other celebrations abound. It acknowledges that managing celebrations after brain injury can be difficult. Filled with expectation and anticipation - it does not always deliver on the promise. It would be great to hear from you about your own experiences and strategies. Managing Celebrations after Brain Injury 2015 I do not want to be accused of being the Grinch who stole Christmas, so please let me start by wishing those of you celebrating Christmas a very special time. And for everyone I hope it is a wonderful new year. Why am I in danger of being called the Grinch? Well, in the middle of a major holiday celebration, I am about to suggest that birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and celebrations after brain injury do not always go so well together. Expectations can be high and…

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Tips for Making Decisions After Brain Injury

  Making the right choices. Making good decisions. Clear and simple strategies for making decisions after brain injury. While researching last weeks article on Changed Decision-Making After Brain Injury  I came across a blog; Brain Injury Self Rehabilitation by Edie a Registered Nurse.  Edie had a brain injury following an assault while at work and had written the article below - full of helpful tips to assist making decisions after brain injury. Simple tips on decision making when life is so indecisive after brain injury 09 November 2012 If you are over 18 there are no safeguards to help with your decision making.  If you make the wrong decision you are held responsible.  It doesn’t matter that your clarity of thought is disrupted, because who can tell if it’s what you want to do or it’s another decision you make carelessly?  It may be that you are easily persuaded to make decisions based on what another is telling you. Help prevent problems with…

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Wondering Who You Are

When I first began working with people with  brain injury I read many memoirs about living with brain injury. It helped me understand brain injury and how it is experienced. After many years I no longer read every book. Over the past year or so I was drawn to three in particular “Flower Between the Cracks" by Helen Sage  and "To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed" by Alix Kates Shulman and the book I write about today: “Wondering Who You Are”. How I first discovered “Wondering Who You Are” is now a bit vague in my mind. It was the foundation for an earlier article here: “Intimacy, Sex and Brain Injury” when I heard an interview with Sonya. I love to listen to audiobooks read by their author so naturally I chose to read / listen to “Wondering Who You Are” as an audio book read by author Sonya Lea. It kept me transfixed travelling to and from my home to the…

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To Say or Not To Say – After Brain Injury Part 1

Recently I have received several letters from people living with brain injury wanting to know how to handle people who say hurtful things, or who say things that are supposed to be motivating but are instead are a reminder of loss. “If you put your mind to it you can do anything”. Timely, when this week when I came across an article entitled “9 things not to say to a wheelchair user” it reminded me of other articles I have read about what to say, and what not to say when a person has a brain injury.  We all know words can build us up, or break us down, and most often the speaker does not mean them to be harmful. So today as a reminder to all of us.  Articles that give clues on what not to say when a person has a brain injury or other life changes. Next week in Part 2 some suggestions on what you might say.…

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Strategies for Organisation Planning and Problem Solving After Brain Injury

Difficulties with organizing, starting things (initiating),  putting things in the right order (sequencing), making plans and sorting out priorities are common cognitive outcomes of brain injury, particularly when the frontal lobe is damaged. I recently received a letter asking about  strategies for organisation planning and problem solving. How can you organize your own life, and that of your family, when you have trouble with planning and organizing after brain injury. This question inspired this series of articles. Last week Brain Injury Difficulty Problem-Solving and Planning looked at what can happen after brain injury. Today tips and strategies for organisation planning and problem solving that might be useful after brain injury. These functions are what you might see termed as “Executive functions”. (brief explanation near the end in  “What Does Cognitive Mean”) All this sounds sort of business talk and that is kind of what executive functions are really – the business end of the brain, figuring things out, making things happen. We…

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Brain Injury Difficulty Problem Solving and Planning

Most of us at some time have trouble trying to work out how to solve a problem. Or maybe we can’t seem to make a decision, or we make a decision and then think “Why did I ever do that”. Brain injury, particularly when it involves the frontal lobe, such as after  trauma, stroke, dementia, tumour,  commonly results in similar difficulty with working through a problem, planning, organizing and putting steps in the right order. After brain injury it is different - it might not go away. Today a look at what happens when planning, organization and putting things in the right order are not happening as they should. Next week some strategies that might be helpful to work around planning and organization issues after brain injury.   Definitions What is planning? "“Planning” is the ability to choose how to do a task, and to list all the steps of the task. Planning also requires the person to decide what they will…

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Memory Strategies After Brain Injury

Today in the final of a series about Memory - a list of memory strategies after brain injury. A whole lot of ideas that might help begin to address memory loss after brain injury. You will need to work out which ones are likely to help. What works will change from person to person depending on the areas of memory affected.    I can make a big list of strategies look simple. I can make a big list look easy. The reality is hard work, patience and tweeking to make the strategy fit lifestyle and circumstances. The important thing is to find strategies that best address the particular areas of memory loss while using the least amount of energy. Think of it like a bank account with limited funds – you want to take care of the money (brain energy) that is available and use it for what you need most. The following memory strategies  use the broad strategy headings from last…

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Planning Successful Strategies for Memory Loss after Brain Injury

Tips and strategies for memory loss after brain injury often focus on use of a diary and other remembering aids. Today I want to begin with a broader range of strategies to think about. Today a range of broad strategies and thoughts about how to set up strategies that suit a person’s lifestyle and needs. Next week lists of more specific ways you might use these strategies. Types Of Memory Strategies Before beginning let me explain the focus of these strategies. There are two broad types of strategies for memory. Restoration looking at retraining memory. Compensation finds ways to work around memory problems. Restoration Restoration – improving and retraining memory. Commonly using repetition and memory recall techniques. Restoration / Memory Retraining may not be the best approach for a person with brain injury. I have not had extensive experience with memory retraining as a strategy for memory loss. The reading I have done suggests it is labour intensive and not hugely successful.  It…

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Read more about the article Memory 104 – Changes to Memory After Brain Injury
Changes in Memory after Brain Injury.

Memory 104 – Changes to Memory After Brain Injury

  Today a brief overview about memory after brain injury. What can happen and what can impact on memory. When something goes wrong, it is often helpful to know how it works normally. So it is with memory. Understanding changes to memory after brain injury can be easier to understand if you have some knowledge about how memory is supposed to work: what is normal memory  what are the different stages and types of memory what parts of the brain are involved in memory strategies for memory loss   Memory After Brain Injury The following are key points from previous articles on how memory works followed by what can happen when the brain is damaged:  Memory function is our: Experience of the past. Adaptation to the present and planning for the future” (Rewriting the Script: Demonstrating Skills and Talents. (Workbook  documentary video and teaching program). Adelaide: ISLD Flinders University. (1999). After brain injury our past, present or future memory can be altered:…

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Memory 103 – Memory and the Brain

  Memory 103 Memory and the Brain - a brief look at the parts of the brain involved in memory. Last week in Memory 102 we focussed on the differences between short term and long term memory. A brief look at what memory is and how it works was covered in the first of the series Memory 101.   Why another anatomy and physiology lesson? Knowledge of memory and the brain helps expand understanding that: The part of the brain damaged will determine the physical and cognitive affects of brain injury. This includes memory. The parts of the brain thought to aid memory can help understand the kind of memory loss a person has after brain injury. Memory is not one thing. There is not one part of the brain labelled memory. Understanding a little of the anatomy can help to understand how memory functions and the complex and different types of memory. A bit of knowledge about memory and the brain along with…

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