Changes that happen to the lives of people living with brain injury their family and friends.
Learning about brain injury through stories helps deepen our understanding of brain injury:[unordered_list style="green-dot"] the cognitive outcomes, the physical and behaviour changes, and the life changing impact of brain injury on each person. [/unordered_list] The Beginning I was driving my daughter to school recently, she was doing some last minute study for a test on electricity and wanted my help. I confessed to her, that most of what she was studying, I had no understanding of, and it all felt very confusing. She then explained what she had been learning, giving real life examples of the concepts in action; telling a story about electricity. It made it real and understandable for me. Thinking about this experience and the importance of stories coincided with a couple of weeks of finding all sorts of exciting stuff about brain injury. When I looked at the path I had taken, it began and ended with stories. I had learned more about the nature of brain injury…
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A starter kit for supporting family after brain injury. Here are four simple actions that you can practice to better support family after brain injury, with compassion and empathy. Over the past couple of posts I have talked about being alongside family after brain injury. Firstly the responses and reactions family members might experience and then about responding with empathy and compassion. How can you put this into practice? It can seem so overwhelming when you begin. Think Open Ears, Open Eyes, Open Mind, and Closed Mouth The following are some tips for how you can begin to offer relevant support to a family after brain injury: OPEN EARS Listen closely to what each family member is telling you about their own experience and the impact on their family after brain injury. Listen as they talk about their needs, and what you can do to best support them. Listen, and let the family know you are hearing and understanding them. Acknowledge that…
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How do we understand family support after brain injury, when we are all different? Each of our families work differently, whether a family member has experienced a major trauma, such as brain injury, or not. Last week, the discussion was about the responses and reactions family might have when a family member has a brain injury. Understanding this, is a starting point to having a family sensitive approach to family support after brain injury. Now we can discuss how we provide family support after brain injury, when not only each family is different, brain injury is different in every person. Compassion and Empathy How to best support family after brain injury? Compassion and empathy, are great foundations. I believe both these words are very misunderstood in our world today, they seem to be seen as soft, or weak. We will talk more about them in the future. For now, in very simple terms: Compassion is well described in the principle “do unto…
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,…
Last week I heard a wonderful radio interview with Helen Sage, a mother, whose daughter Jane, has lived with brain injury for the past 13 years. As I listened it reminded me of so many aspects of understanding family life after brain injury: hope and grief, finding capacities and positive outcomes, ambiguous loss, and the concept of growing through trauma. All described, not in the language of a brain injury text book, but in a compelling and personal way. The interview centred on a new book “A Flower between the Cracks” written by Helen, about their family experience. (See the link to the interview at the end of this post, it's well worth a listen). I have immediately ordered the book, and hope to share more once I have read it. Meantime the interview with Helen was a poignant and enlightening discussion about the impact of brain injury. What did I learn listening to Helen? Brain injury happens to families It is…