Potential outcomes of brain injury including behaviour, cognitive, social, emotional.
Have you noticed there is a lot of focus on strategies for the physical and cognitive effects of brain injury, and not so much on how brain injury changes people’s lives? Yet it is the changes to your way of life that can have the most impact. Imagine your life changing; maybe in an instant, maybe slowly over time. It might be you are no longer able to drive, you lose your job, friends are no longer around. Big things in life to deal with at any time, but imagine how it would be when you are already trying to manage the effects of brain damage. These changes to life are often the most significant changes for the person living with brain injury. Hopefully, by gaining an understanding of the changes that might occur, and developing strategies to build on, you will be better able to support a person's adjustment to life after brain injury. Today a look at how brain injury…
This article by Louis Cozolino originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. While I was on the trail, searching for information on a topic (I can no longer remember what in particular), I found the Greater Good Science Centre site. On this site I found all sorts of interesting and fascinating stuff about the brain, social and emotional wellbeing, compassion, empathy and so much more. One article captured my attention and with permission from Lou Cozolino and Greater Good, I reprint it here, along with other links Greater Good have provided. As I read this article, primarily about children and education, it seemed there was information that was useful for children living with brain injury, and also for adults. I have not read the book yet but would welcome comments from anyone who has. Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain By Louis Cozolino | March 19, 2013 | In an excerpt from…
Face Blindness,(Prosopagnosia) is the lack of ability to recognise faces. Including people who are very familiar; sometimes even your own face. Today the focus is on Prosopagnosia, more commonly known as 'Face Blindness' after brain injury, other causes are also mentioned below. While the cause may be different, the outcome is similar. About Prosopagnosia or Face Blindness Over the past two weeks we talked about left brain right brain along with left and right brain function. Prosopagnosia, or face blindness as I will call it from here on in, was an example of what can happen when damage occurs. Reading about Prosopagnosia got me thinking. While I have met people who have face blindness after brain injury, I knew very little about it. Today I share what I have learned on my week of exploration. Some early learnings, I believe key points, that came to me while exploring face blindness were: [ordered_list style="lower-alpha"] a) This is not a person being rude…
Left Brain Right Brain Function Understanding Left brain Right brain function can help you understand how the damage after brain injury might affect a person’s ability to carry out tasks; and what support might be needed, particularly to encourage development of new pathways. This video “The Divided Brain” is a wonderful, though challenging, introduction to understanding the separate and combined left brain right brain function. Today follows on from last week’s introduction to left brain right brain function with more about the specific functions of each hemisphere. The Workings of Left Brain Right Brain Functions The following table lists a range of left brain right brain functions. A simple start to what each hemisphere does: The left brain generally works on detail and specifics, the right brain takes a more global approach, both work together for optimal efficiency. Left brain logical, Right brain creative. Again a 'brain disclaimer' needs to be remembered. Most of the time the functions are on the…
If you are wondering what King Henry VIII brain injury and behaviour change have in common. A clue - It is part of fascinating research into the life and health of King Henry. Read on for more: KING HENRY VIII AND THE JOUSTING INCIDENT In 1536, King Henry was taking part in a jousting match, a sport where opponents on horseback joust (or fight) armed with long heavy spears, wearing a full suit of armour. During this match King Henry fell from his horse. The horse then fell on top of him. He was unconscious for a time and it was thought he would not survive. His queen at the time, Anne Boleyn, was distraught. It was following this incident, his behaviour and personality apparently changed considerably. It is thought this resulted from frontal lobe damage. If you are interested in more about King Henry, brain injury and behaviour change, you can read more in this article “The Jousting Accident…
Having a strong ethical framework for brain injury supporters to work from, can help you manage ethical dilemmas as they arise – and they do. Often dilemmas happen with little or no time to sit and think about it, or time to call in the experts. It is rarely as easy as ‘Right or Wrong’ and each dilemma is likely to be different. How do you develop your own process for making ethical decisions and choices? Today a look at developing an ethical framework for brain injury support. ETHICAL DILEMMA AND ETHICAL FRAMEWORK FOR BRAIN INJURY Mostly we don’t think about any of this. Well, not until we are slap bang up against an ethical dilemma. So today it’s not so much a ‘how to’. It’s more a start here, and keep working on it. Here is a couple of examples to get you thinking: Joe is not able to move about without help. He has cognitive difficulties, as a result of…
We mostly rely on our intuition and instinct telling us we are doing (or about to do) something unethical. Ethical dilemma and brain injury is not always so clear. What makes this so? Last week as an introduction to ethical dilemma and brain injury, the focus was on ethics and ethical dilemma. In that article I shared a powerful quote, from Rabbi Dr Milton Pine, that has started my thinking about about ethical dilemma and brain injury. This coincided with finding an article by Dr Geoffrey Scott entitled “Ethical Dilemmas” (Think, 1991). It was in deeply buried in my archives, and found during a clean out. (As an aside, that clean out showed me there is much to be learned from the old, and what is new, is not always that new!) Back to the article; Dr Scott was both a teacher of ethics, and the father of a son with brain injury. Like Dr Pine, he also eloquently described an ethical…
Have you come across real life ethical dilemmas around brain injury? Maybe you have found yourself facing an ethical challenge? This week I had been thinking a lot about an ethical dilemma posed at the end of a stunning presentation at a brain injury conference some time in the 1990's. The paper was presented by Rabbi Dr Milton Pine describing his experience of brain injury. At the close of his presentation he said: "if you are going to make us live, don't bury us alive". This powerful statement has stuck in my mind since that time. I believe it highlights an ethical dilemma around brain injury. The cost of emergency and acute care for a person, compared with what is provided for life long living, and community care. An ethical dilemma we could all think more about. I then decided to focus on ethics and ethical dilemmas about brain injury for this article. Unfortunately when I started thinking, researching, writing, revising.…
Often the focus for a person living with brain injury is on managing the physical and cognitive effects, not noticing changes in emotions after brain injury. It is easy to overlook the emotional ups and downs that come with such a major change to your life. Each week I look forward to wonderful emails from people all over the world in response to these articles. One email I received this week prompted me to think about the many conversations I have had over the years, with people up against their own reactions, responses and emotions after brain injury, along with those of their family and friends. The letter (yes it was an email, but I like to think of them as letters) was about the struggle to understand, and live with the life changes, that come with brain injury. The emotional roller coaster. I am not talking about the emotional changes that happen because of damage to the brain. I am talking…
Today, a look at what can happen when the work of the frontal lobe is interrupted or damaged. This builds on my attempt last week to simply explain what the frontal lobe does. How Does Frontal Lobe Damage Happen? Last week I mentioned a book I had found useful THE EXECUTIVE BRAIN: Frontal Lobes And The Civilized Mind by Dr Elkhonon Goldberg. In a Chapter entitled “When the Leader is Wounded” (yes your frontal lobe is the boss of the brain), he uses a military picture to describe how frontal lobe damage can happen. I will try and summarise what Dr Goldberg describes: If the leader is damaged, the soldiers (read 'soldiers' as 'other lobes of the brain') are without an organiser. The soldiers can’t sort out what needs to be done because they don't know what each other is doing, no-one is taking charge, and they can't do their job properly. If the links between the leader and the field are damaged…
