NR Times speaks with SNP MP, Lisa Cameron, about her background as a clinical psychologist and how long-term issues related to brain injuries are often overlooked.
Lisa Cameron’s attention is on countless important issues in her role as SNP MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow in Scotland, but she tells NR Times why she is particularly interested in policies relating to brain injuries. Before becoming an MP, she previously worked as a consultant clinical psychologist and is chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Disability.
“When I was working as a psychologist, I was undertaking assessments of people with brain injury in relation to memory, executive function and language,” she tells NR Times.
“I’d routinely do assessments in practice, working with people on the front-line with brain injuries.”
Cameron also has second-hand experience, as her husband acquired a brain injury when he was serving in the Armed Forces. Thankfully, he received fast rehab, but the experience only highlighted to Cameron the importance of rehab and ongoing support for brain injury patients.
“I became aware from a personal point of view that these issues are often overlooked,” she says.
“Although someone might have treatment initially, often there are long-term consequences that go unnoticed, or support isn’t there over the long term and I feel it should be, particularly for veterans.”
Cameron often hears about the same pattern unfolding among her constituents, as well as problems accessing financial state support.
She has previously raised the issue of ‘inadequate’ personal independent payments (PIP) and employment and support allowance (ESA) assessments for people with brain injuries in the House of Commons.
“Someone with a physical disability has assessments with the Department for Work and Pensions to be assessed for financial support, where there’s often an underlying brain injury that may be historic on their medical records.
“But assessors don’t realise or understand that their functioning may not return to pre-morbid levels, and that there will be a residual impact on the person’s memory, potentially their language, their ability to plan and their executive functioning, and often these things aren’t picked up with benefits assessments.”
Unless someone has a really traumatic brain injury, Cameron says, they’re often not tested, despite the fact that much less severe brain injuries can often still have a massive impact on someone.
The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating these issues, says Cameron, who is seeing diagnosis and assessments being delayed even more than usual in her constituency.
“That’s having an impact on constituents in terms of the support they have, and their access to appropriate welfare support,” she says.
Cameron has seen that, unless someone is admitted to hospital at the time of their brain injury, and undergoes extensive testing, there can be years of delay before the person is referred for assessments.
In Cameron’s constituency, there has been such a delay that a specialist service has been running outside of the NHS to alleviate pressure on the NHS for a number of years. She sees the positive and negative impacts this is having on the community.
“It’s preferable if services are conducted within the NHS, but the practicalities of things being the way they are currently mean that’s not happened, the NHS isn’t really able to manage this within the timeframe.
“For people who have been able to access it, it’s had positive benefits for them in terms of getting diagnoses, but the specialist service creates barriers where people can’t afford it, which creates inequality in the system.”
However, the service does get some referrals from the NHS to reduce patients’ waiting times.
“It’s good if people can access it from all backgrounds and it doesn’t undermine services the NHS is providing,” she says.
Away from her constituency and in Westminster, Cameron has found that, in her role as chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Disability, there’s also a lack of understanding of brain injuries.
“People get confused between brain injuries and developmental disorders, spectrum disorders and mental health issues in parliament,” she says.
But Cameron has found this isn’t unique to parliament.
“When I worked in the prison service and going in to do assessments on people, there was a lot of underlying brain injuries that were unassessed. They were demonstrated in terms of impulsivity, lack of planning and poor executive functioning.
“This is a huge issue that needs to be addressed within criminal justice.”
Cameron says there should be basic training for prison officers around spotting brain injuries, and routine testing and assessments for brain injury when people are placed on remand.
When Cameron visited prisoners, she’d hear about prisoners who’d had three or four brain injuries, but no one linked it to difficulties they were having until she asked about their memory or executive functioning.
“Awareness training for prison officers and police officers would be helpful, and assessments for people on remand or in the system already, to ensure they get adequate support and any particular issues linked to their medical condition can be flagged up. This would definitely help recidivism rates.”
