A brain injury can happen to anybody, at any time. Nobody is immune and anybody could need help, at any point in their lives.
Headway Lincolnshire has spent the last 33 years assisting those living with a brain injury on a daily basis, and of course their friends and family too.
A brain injury is understandably life changing for the individual who has suffered the injury. However, family and friends are often forgotten about or lost within the NHS/Social Care systems due to the time invested in assisting the individual living with the brain injury. Headway Lincolnshire aim to bridge the gap between initial injury and ‘living with’ a brain injury for both survivors and relatives and this year’s National Campaign focus for ‘Brain Injury Awareness’ is memory.
Memory loss can be frustrating for even the average person who walks to their fridge only to forget what they needed. However, memory loss for a brain injury survivor can be much more life impacting and debilitating. They can increase anger levels as survivors feel misunderstood or alone:
- 72% of brain injury survivors feel the people in their life don’t understand memory problems;
- 81% of brain injury survivors report that their life would be improved if people had a better understanding.
How would you cope, if you could not remember parts or all of your life?
Memory loss is one of the most commonly experienced effects of brain injury with added difficulty being that nobody can ever 100% assure a survivor or their relative when that memory will (or if it will!) return. Initially the impact of a brain injury can be lost on a survivor and their relatives as they feel gratitude for the fact they did not lose their life. Quickly though, realisation can dawn that those memories, experiences of life and/or skills are lost (sometimes forever).
Headway aim to raise awareness of the disabling effects of memory loss and improve life after brain injury. Please see www.headway.org.uk/news-and-campaigns/news for further information from the National Headway UK website. For local assistance in Lincolnshire, please look for Headway Lincolnshire.