Opinion
Professionals representing key disciplines at St Andrew’s Healthcare explain their priorities in managing this highly complex condition.
A view from the frontline of child brain injury care on this often misunderstood and under-diagnosed condition.
The professionals helping to make sure sex is not forgotten in the drive to improve life quality after severe injury.
Post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) relates to the time after a period of unconsciousness (although this is not always the case) following an acquired brain injury, when the injured person is conscious and awake, but due to their brain injury is behaving or talking in a bizarre or uncharacteristic manner. Specific symptoms of PTA are individual, but most commonly involve memory and orientation impairment. When combined with confusion, agitation, distress and anxiety, uncharacteristic and difficult to manage behaviours can manifest. These may include aggression, swearing, shouting, disinhibition, and wandering, which in the context of a trauma ward or general hospital setting, can be difficult or unsafe to manage.
Also high on the agenda are brain stimulation, diagnostics and mental health; with organisers expecting around 3,500 neurologists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, clinicians, rehab specialists and hospital trust representatives to attend. The convention, at the NEC, is billed as the only trade show in Europe for brain and spinal experts and will feature over 200 exhibitors. Among them will be those offering new and emerging approaches to rehabilitation, with a range of innovative product and services firms.
The role of a case manager is to manage a “collaborative process of assessment, planning, facilitation, care co-ordination, evaluation and advocacy for options and services to meet an individual’s and family’s comprehensive health needs through communication and available resources to promote quality cost effective outcomes[1].” The role of a Claimant solicitor in the litigation process is to represent the needs of the injured person and to manage all phases of the litigation towards settlement or trial. It is a process of collating and presenting the evidence that is required to ensure that the award agreed between the parties or made by the Court is fair and correct.
Being discharged from the Court of Protection after a brain injury can be a long and arduous journey. It was especially long for Rebecca Gilmore, however, given that her brain injury was never detected or addressed until several years after the incident that caused it. Her life changed at 11 years old when she was [...]
Of the 12 million Britons living with disability, only one in six takes part in sport regularly. Yet 70% of disabled people would like to be more active, according to a 2018 report by Activity Alliance (formerly the English Federation of Disability Sport). Through our Don’t Quit, Do Itinitiative, we have seen at close hand [...]
Sian Mara, 35, was enjoying a holiday in Cuba with her husband Jason and her 12-year-old daughter when it happened. Sian, from Chard in Somerset, recalls: “It was just a normal day, I’d been swimming and playing volleyball in the pool with my daughter, went upstairs to get ready for dinner, had a shower and then [...]
The shuffling and whispers of the conference crowd ceased entirely when Yorkshireman Stephen shared his story. The brain injury survivor recalled the last thing his wife ever said to him before the overdose that killed her. “I just want my old Steph back”, he quoted to a watching audience of delegates. Even battle-hardened brain injury [...]
