Blog

Life Changes After Brain Injury / Strategies Approaches and Support

Working Alongside Family After Brain Injury – Part 1

As a first step to working well alongside a family after brain injury, begin by imagining. Imagine the possible effects of a major life changing event (such as brain injury) on a family. On each family member. Think about each family member dealing with a range of different emotions, responses and reactions, at different stages for different lengths of time. Before we talk more about what happens after brain injury, here is a short clip that talks a bit about family after brain injury. Understanding Possible Reactions and Responses: Family After Brain Injury As supporters we can assist by being aware, and respectful of what individual family members may be experiencing. What are some of the many different responses and reactions you might see? Grief Each change and adjustment to a family member’s role or relationship can bring new feelings of grief. Family events (even happy ones) and traumatic news events can trigger grief and reminders of loss for instance birthdays, anniversaries,…

1 Comment
July 9, 2013
Brain and Function / Brain Injury Outcomes / Strategies Approaches and Support

Get Moving! There is a Link Between Exercise and the Brain.

A number of things happened this past week that lead me to this discussion today about exercise and the brain. I have been in New Zealand visiting my family. My mother had saved a collection of resources about brain injury and dementia for me. One was a booklet entitled “Exercise and the Brain. The New Science of Brain Health”, published by the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand. Walking and Thinking I had flicked through the booklet, just before I went on a long, strenuous and very beautiful walk, through the amazing bush, of the Coromandel Peninsula – which is where this photo was taken. I was thinking about the booklet as I walked. Sometimes, when we are learning about the brain, and how to best care for the brain, we focus on caring for another person’s brain. We need to remember to look after our own brains as well. Based on research becoming available there are a number of things we can…

Comments Off on Get Moving! There is a Link Between Exercise and the Brain.
July 2, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes / Strategies Approaches and Support

Words that Form the Foundation of Solid Strategies for People with Brain Injury

Model...Cue...Prompt...Structure... Words that form part of the foundations of good solid strategies for people living with brain injury. Just some of the words you will hear and read about. What do these words mean in real life? I was thinking about this when I recently found some rough, handwritten notes containing these words I had made some time in the past. More than likely at a conference on brain injury. Unfortunately, while I thought the notes were useful, there was no source, person, or date noted on the page. Oh dear, common failings of mine, along with a complete inability to keep time logs, or task records. No patience for detail!   “APPROACHES" My scrawled notes were headed “APPROACHES” and though only a few words I thought I would share and talk about them. I believe they are helpful to understand more about implementing strategies for people with brain injury, in day to day life. Firstly as an introduction here is exactly…

Comments Off on Words that Form the Foundation of Solid Strategies for People with Brain Injury
June 25, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes / Cognitive changes / Strategies Approaches and Support

The Spotlight is Attention and Concentration the Focus to Get it Done

Attention and concentration are cognitive (thinking) tools that allow us to choose to focus on something, and stick at it to the end. While doing this, we can be taking notice of some things, and ignoring others. I might read a letter, while listening to music but ignore the noise of my children playing; I might be listening carefully to what someone is saying, while ignoring other conversations in a room. Attention means we choose what is important for us to focus on at any moment. Concentration is what enables us to focus our attention for long enough to complete the tasks we wish to. Last week I made a rather long attempt at 'summarising' the working of the brain. I hope this sets the scene for understanding more about how cognitive abilities, like attention and concentration, are used in the work of our brain. And what happens with cognitive changes, after brain injury. Attention, or attending to information, and concentrating on…

2 Comments
June 19, 2013
Brain and Function / Starting Out

How the Busy Brain Works

The challenge I am setting myself today is to see if I can write a simple explanation on how the brain does its work. One that helps understanding of brain injury and cognitive impairment. Knowing that our brains are so complex increases this challenge. To begin here is an extraordinary video of a brain at work: Why should the brain interest you? Do you really need to know about the brain? YES,  I believe some understanding helps: [unordered_list style="tick"] It helps you understand how the outcomes of brain injury come about. It helps make sense of an often confusing combination of cognitive difficulties. It can help you support a person with brain injury more effectively, as you are more able to think through what might happening in the brain. It helps you to not take things personally. [/unordered_list] We know that the brain is responsible for everything we do and if you think about it, that is a huge amount of work.…

3 Comments
June 11, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes

9 things brain injury supporters should not say to a person with brain injury

Brain injury is a tricky thing to understand and respond to. Have you ever said something, you wished you could take back? Or maybe you have said something and been surprised by the reaction you got. Sometimes as supporters we say and do things best left unsaid. It is hard to know how best to support a person with brain injury and we continue to learn from our mistakes, and our successes. The inspiration for this post came from a post by Dr Marie Rowland who talked about “9 things not to say to someone with a brain injury”. As supporters we want to do the very best, we care, we want to be helpful. Sometimes there are caring thoughts and deeds that are not so helpful.  Here are 9 things I have heard said that should be changed for more positive and helpful alternatives. Yes I confess that variations of some of these have come from my own mouth at times!…

4 Comments
June 5, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes / Starting Out / Strategies Approaches and Support

Finding your Voice as a Brain Injury Supporter

“Finding your voice.” Writers do it. Actors do it. Singers do it. Bloggers do it. Brain injury supporters do it. Wait… do they  - why would they? What has finding your voice got to do with supporting a person with brain injury? I had not really thought about it in this way before. I got to thinking about "our voice" being the way we communicate: our words, expression, body language, tone, the way in which we present ourselves. This thinking all began when I decided I wanted to establish a blog, well this blog actually! Knowing very little about online communication I began to learn all I could. In my reading I discovered there was a lot about “finding your voice”; one that can be heard amongst the 156million+ other voices out there. One that is authentic and your own. That might sound simple, and maybe for some lucky writers it is. I have spent (and continue to spend) many thoughtful hours,…

Comments Off on Finding your Voice as a Brain Injury Supporter
May 30, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes

Train the Brain. Train it to Regain It!

Neuroplasticity,  “Use it or lose it”, "Train the brain" ,“Train it to regain it”.  These days we hear more and more about retraining the brain. Fantastic! Exciting! How do you do it? Where do you start? Before we start if you are interested in a basic introduction to what neuroplasticity is, spend a couple of minutes HERE Now I want to share two inspiring stories (of the many millions we would find around the world) that help explain why persisting with training the brain can pay off. There are some tips on how to go about it, AND I hope it fires up your enthusiasm. This builds on some of the key messages you will hear over and over here – Can Do,  “Use it or Lose it”, Build on Strengths, and the importance of lifelong learning for all of us, with or without brain injury. Last week I talked about learning about brain injury from movies, now I want to show…

5 Comments
May 22, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes / Cognitive changes / Memory Changes

Can we learn about Brain Injury in movies?

Some time ago I watched the movie 'The Vow'. It got me thinking about the portrayal of brain injury in movies; thinking about what movies have been made about brain injury; and whether we can learn about brain injury in movies that are primarily made to entertain. 'The Vow' Well, The Vow might be a bit schmaltzy, and it may gloss over the tough bits of living with a brain injury, but it does look at the impact on family and family relationships, it looks at the impact of memory loss, and it looks at developing strategies that work for the person. I discovered that the movie is based on the lives of a real couple Krickitt and Kim(called Paige and Leo in the movie) Carpenter, interviewed in the video clip here. There are moments that make you think about what it would be like. At one point Leo(Kim) (the husband) says “Life’s all about moments of impact and how they changes…

6 Comments
May 15, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes / Cognitive changes / Strategies Approaches and Support

Egocentricity: It’s not really “all about me”; it’s all about the brain injury

Damage to the brain, causes egocentricity. It is a common cognitive outcome after brain injury, and one that can be very difficult for family and others to cope with. If you are supporting people with brain injury it is more than likely you will come across egocentricity. In a Family Studies Project asking families about what kind of problems they had (conducted by the Research and Training Center on Brain Injury, at the State University of New York, Buffalo) , they found 61% of people with brain injury were reported as “... occasionally self centred”1 Egocentricity, is often described as “it’s all about me” because a person seems focussed on themselves when it's the brain injury talking. What does egocentricity look like? Egocentricity affects a person’s ability to notice things, to put themselves in another person’s position, which means they may not see the needs of others. This may cause a person to seem more self centred, selfish, not able to care…

4 Comments
May 1, 2013