What to Expect After Brain Injury Guide

Brain injuries can cause many changes in the life of the survivor and their support system. These changes can be overwhelming and can impact every aspect of the survivor’s life. This is why the Brain Injury Association of America has authored the What to Expect After Brain Injury Guide to assist survivors and caregivers in navigating life post-injury. Read on to see what is in the guide and how you can download it.

What can you find in the What to Expect After Brain Injury Guide?

• How to prepare the home after returning from the hospital: Returning home following brain injury – regardless of severity – can be complex. For the person with brain injury, as well as their family, this time can be emotional, exciting, overwhelming, and exhausting. It is important for family members and caregivers to assess the home before the individual’s return from rehabilitation and make sure it is a safe, accessible environment. This guide provides tips and advice for how to address an individual’s return home after brain injury.
• How to return to work: Brain injury can leave an individual with a number of persistent impairments that interfere with finding and keeping a job. After sustaining a brain injury, an individual may experience difficulty performing their job safely, or in the same manner they did prior to their brain injury. Some may find they need to seek other employment, while others can request accommodations that address their new needs. This guide provides strategies for returning to work, types of rehabilitation that can help in returning to work, and more.
• Brain injury’s impact on health: The effects of brain injury are often long lasting, and recovery may be incomplete. Although some people with severe brain injuries experience only mild long-term difficulties, other people may require care or special services for the rest of their lives. This guide can help survivors and caregivers understand the wide-reaching effects of brain injury.
• How brain injury can impact the survivor’s relationships: Brain injury can – and likely will – impact every relationship held by a person who has sustained a brain injury, as well as their family members and caretakers. It is vital to remember that the impact of brain injury is not only felt by the person who has sustained the injury, but the entire family. The guide breaks down how brain injuries impact the various relationships of the survivor and how to navigate this complicated situation.
• Financial planning information: Brain injury can cause a strain on finances and, therefore, it is important to be as organized and informed as possible. While specifying preferences for decisions ahead of time can relieve the burden of decision-making, many must make these decisions after the brain injury. While each state has its own unique requirements, there are many standard legal documents that are commonly associated with a catastrophic injury. This guide provides resources that caregivers and survivors can utilize to help with financial management after brain injury.
• Brain injury in children: Brain injury is the leading cause of disability and death in children and adolescents in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the two age groups at greatest risk for brain injury are age 0-4 and 15-19. This guide helps outline the risk that brain injury poses to children, the symptoms that can present, and more.