Causes and incidence of brain injury
Brain injury is unique, its outcomes distinct. Often I have heard of confusion about brain injury with mental illness and brain injury with intellectual disability. So today I am updating and reposting an article I wrote a while ago that reminds us of the differences. Brain Injury is DIFFERENT to other conditions, illnesses, and disabilities: [unordered_list style="green-dot"] Sometimes brain injury is confused with, or misdiagnosed as, another disorder. Understanding that brain injury is different can assist you to encourage correct diagnosis, and be able to provide support more successfully. If you have experience supporting people with other disorders you may need to review, change, or tailor your strategies to meet the needs of a person with brain injury. Understanding how brain injury is different can help you do this. For example it is important to understand why working with a person with an intellectual disability requires different strategies to working with a person with brain injury. [/unordered_list] Brain injury is different to:…
Sometimes people do things that seem a bit odd but fun! In 2011 a fun study with a serious side about traumatic brain injury was conducted by a group of Neurosurgeons in Germany. The results were published in the European Association of Neurobiological Studies and widely reported since. Why is that special you might ask? Well this experiment looked at the incidence, severity and treatment of traumatic brain injury in the Asterix comic series! Cartoon characters acquiring brain injury. Who or What Are Asterix Comics For those of you who might have missed Asterix comics -I might have if not for a son devoted to them. Including wanting me to cook wild boar in cream sauce! In Australia. This is a series of comics first published in 1959. Set in ancient Rome in 50BC. The main characters are Asterix and his close friend Obelix, fictional soldiers protecting their village of Gaul from the Roman army. Only 34 volumes…
Diagnosis of Dementia Photo of Anne Deveson Wikipedia Dman41689
I have just read an interview with Anne Deveson on her recent diagnosis of brain injury – more specifically Alzheimer's Disease. Anne describes an approach to a diagnosis of dementia that contains hope and strength, not just the devastation one might expect. It linked to a question that occupies my thinking - how would I respond in a similar situation? Anne is a person who has influenced my thinking over the years. A strong, articulate advocate on a wide range of social justice issues. I see that again now as she publicly describes her responses to her diagnosis of dementia. It provides a potential answer to my own question. Firstly quotes from Anne about her diagnosis from a recent interview, and a brief introduction to her work. Reflections on a Diagnosis of Dementia The following reflections are quotes from ‘National treasure Anne Deveson faces up to Alzheimer's diagnosis” by Fenella Souter in The Age Good Weekend January 13th 2015 [button link="http://www.theage.com.au/good-weekend/national-treasure-anne-deveson-faces-up-to-alzheimers-diagnosis-20150130-12mpwo.html" size="large" style="info" color="silver"…
Soldiers Marching Wikipedia
Today you are reading the remnants of what was to be a grand and enlightening piece about soldiers with brain injury. You might ask - Well what happened? [unordered_list style="green-dot"] You can see the beginning last week in a "Rant for Remembrance Day". It was much, much, bigger and more complex than I thought. Brain injury - Post traumatic stress disorder - shell shock - the circumstances of war. It was more emotional and difficult than I thought. The human stories, the lack of support for veterans - anger, sorrow, guilt, disbelief, horror and more. I kept doubting I could. The more I read, the more I wondered - What did I really know about soldiers with brain injury and their lives? [/unordered_list] You might then ask - Why did I keep going? [unordered_list style="green-dot"] I was learning so much and I wondered if sharing what I found might interest other people. My belief that this story needs to continue to…
Brain Myth Buster. Flickr Image by Hartwig HKD
Sorting fact from fiction. Sorting brain myth from fact, can be difficult, especially when using the internet for information. Since beginning Changed Lives New Journeys I have learned much more about many aspects of the brain, and brain injury. Researching brain myths in these past weeks I realised one of my major learnings has been “Believe no-one. Check it out for yourself.” Believe it or Not: a Brain Myth vs Fact Story The following story is to illustrate the differing views that can arise when researching facts, information, treatment, and therapies. About a year ago while researching an article on the causes of brain injury I came across a TED talk by Dr Amen entitled The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans. I watched and I was impressed. it looked amazing and I wanted to believe it possible. I looked up a bit more about Dr Amen and thought at first I would share the talk. It seemed like…
Image by Chris Scott
Brain Injury can and does happen to anyone. Brain injury happens to many many people across the world. This is one of the reasons I believe brain injury deserves much more of our attention and understanding. We all need to be better informed. We all need to have a real understanding of how brain injury affects the 10 million plus people around the world who live with it. I don’t mean the movie world presentation of brain injury, nor the way it is often presented in our news. This week my dear friend and “roving reporter” who sends me interesting snippets about brain injury sent me an article “Research shows that American football can ignore the dangers of trauma no longer”. This prompted today’s topic. The article brought to my mind two directions I have noticed in recent news media presentations about brain injury. The first is that brain injury happens to ‘other’ people. The second is that brain injury makes people…
We Take Care of Our Own. Or Do We
Bruce Springsteen, a song, brain injury, and a lack of support. What do they have to do with each other? For me they all linked together to become this weeks article! I was thinking about the people I have met, and read about, who are living with brain injury. It impacts on the the life of each person differently. For some, brain injury brings changes that are overwhelming, unacceptable, and sometimes just plain sad. When you really pay attention to these stories the lack of the right supports at the right time often creates the difficulties. Preparing the article last week on Brain Injury and Homelessness left me outraged. Outraged that a person could end up homeless because of sustaining a brain injury, often through a lack of adequate care and support. I thought I would share more of my outrage this week. Please share any "outrages" you have about support and brain injury in the Comments below. It Outrages Me…
This week I was reading reports about brain injury (often undiagnosed) in young people, particularly young men and felt I just had to share some thoughts. Yes, I know I promised not to shower you with too many statistics about brain injury. Yes, I did say that we would talk about all types of brain injury not just Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). We will. Really, we will. But first: Why keep on about the incidence of brain injury? It seems we are still not as aware as we should be of the risks inherent in many activities. This includes sports such as cycling, football, skiing, boxing, vehicles both on and off road, and war related injuries whether direct or indirect. We are also still learning about responsibilities for prevention and ongoing support. As the numbers increase, (as they continue to do), we are all very likely to meet people in all kinds of situations who have a brain injury and this should…
