Starting Out

Behaviour changes / Brain Injury Outcomes / Cognitive changes / Starting Out

Back to Basics: Potential Outcomes of Brain Injury

Back to basics with a look at the potential changes and outcomes of brain injury. In brief - if we think about the brain controlling everything we do: then damage to the brain can affect everything we do. Seven points to remember about the outcomes of brain injury Before talking more about specific outcomes here are seven points to remember: Brain injury is complex and difficult to fully understand. An organ that can boast 100 billion cells has got to hold a few surprises for us all. Mostly the part of the brain damaged will determine the physical and cognitive effects. All parts of the brain are closely linked and work together so predicting the exact outcome can be difficult. The combinations of cognitive and physical effects following brain injury are different for every person. The outcome is random. Many years ago Headway Victoria in Australia used the analogy of acquiring a brain injury being like dealing a deck of cards, you…

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December 5, 2013
Read more about the article Open Ears, Open Eyes, Open Mind, Closed Mouth: Supporting Family after Brain Injury – Part 3
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Brain Injury Outcomes / Life Changes After Brain Injury / Starting Out / Strategies Approaches and Support

Open Ears, Open Eyes, Open Mind, Closed Mouth: Supporting Family after Brain Injury – Part 3

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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July 22, 2013
Read more about the article Family Support after Brain Injury: Empathy and Compassion – Part 2
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Brain Injury Outcomes / Life Changes After Brain Injury / Starting Out / Strategies Approaches and Support

Family Support after Brain Injury: Empathy and Compassion – Part 2

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…

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July 16, 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.…

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June 11, 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,…

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May 30, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes / Cognitive changes / Starting Out

What does ‘COGNITIVE’ mean?

Cognitive impairment is common following brain injury. A person may have minimal, or no physical effects, yet be significantly changed by cognitive damage. This makes it important to understand what 'cognitive' really means. For some reason the idea of spelling bees came to mind. Do you remember them? The teacher says “Spell Cognitive” and an earnest voice says "COGNITIVE, C-o-g-n-i-t-i-v-e spells COGNITIVE". Well spelling 'cognitive' might be a whole lot simpler than trying to understand its meaning. Still let's have a go, how hard can it be!!  Well I do know when I started out I found the meaning of "COGNITIVE" difficult to grasp: How did it differ from intellect? What did it do for us in everyday life? What kinds of functions would be damaged when someone had 'cognitive impairment'? At a conference on brain injury, during my early working life, I bought a cassette tape (that dates me a bit!) that described cognitive and executive functions. I listened to it…

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April 23, 2013
Behaviour changes / Brain Injury Outcomes / Starting Out

It’s the Brain Injury Talking

Lazy, manipulative, attention-seeking! Have you heard people using those, or similar terms when describing the behavior of someone living with brain injury. Not very helpful is it? It kind of suggests a deliberate tone to the behavior. Maybe at times you have thought what you are seeing is personally directed at you.  I will tell you upfront I get a bit steamed up on this topic. So I really want to talk about this and try and give you some alternative strategies. At some point we all have moments where we think whatever is happening, is personal - it's designed to get at me. Think about the impact this has. Taking behaviours as intentional and personal, seeing behavior as deliberate, believing a person with brain injury is personally getting at you, it can be exhausting for you. It is not helpful for you, (the supporter),it is not helpful for the person with brain injury, and it is not at all beneficial to…

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March 19, 2013
Starting Out

The Beliefs I Believe: The Working Be’s!

The Be's                                 Be an encourager - seek strengths, be positive. We all do better working from what we CAN do rather than what we cannot. a finder of the key – seek ways and strategies to ensure life is LIVED. Every person with the right support can be a part of community life, belong and connect. a seeker of knowledge – life-long learning for everyone. There is always more to learn for you, for the person living with brain injury, for family. yourself –  be natural, take on board tips and knowledge from others, be yourself in the way you provide the support and implement the strategies. an improver – look out for ways to encourage improvements. There is always a better way; there is always more to be done; there are always more possibilities available, than we know about. respectful – openness, honesty and respect of the person you are supporting, their family and friends, and yourself in all…

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March 12, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes / Starting Out

What Causes Brain Injury?

  Before reading any further think about the causes of brain injury you are aware of.  See how you go matching up with the list below. Any surprises? Any questions? Often there are many more causes than people realise. Think about the ages and stages of life, and what types of brain injury might be common to that stage? Understanding a bit about the brain can help identify what the possible causes might be. Understanding the causes can help you understand what kind of damage might result. Both will help you better work with the person you are supporting. When it comes to brain injury, a little knowledge can go a long way in helping you  support a person with brain injury. The main causes of brain injury can vary between countries. I remember discussing brain injury with a person who was working in the Pacific Islands, she reported brain injury from coconuts falling from trees was not uncommon, for me living…

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March 11, 2013
Brain Injury Outcomes / Starting Out

Stats without the rats: The not so boring statistics of brain injury and why you should be interested.

Why present the statistics of brain injury? Well it reminds us, we are each highly likely to have some experience of brain injury at some point in our life. This makes it worthwhile having some understanding of what it’s all about. Most of us never hear of brain injury until it happens to ourselves, a family member, or a friend, or maybe we begin working with someone who has a brain injury. When you look at the statistics worldwide, brain injury is more common than most of us realize. More Statistics: Consider the following statistics, really, I am not a statistic kind of person, and I will keep them to a minimum. I just want to share a few to remind you of why you should be interested in brain injury. “One billion people affected worldwide,” Did you say ONE BILLION??? and  “50 million suffer from epilepsy and 24 million from Alzheimer and other dementias. Neurological disorders affect people in all countries,…

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March 9, 2013