Brain Injury Rehabilitation

• Initial support for loved ones – We will carry out investigations with third-party insurers to secure funds where ever possible for help with things such as family travel expenses to and from the hospital, and where necessary local accommodation for family members to stay close to their loved one. Families with children may need funding for emergency childcare cover, which we can also arrange.
• Help securing the best possible treatment – Our solicitors will liaise with clinicians, if requested, to identify whether an alternative and more specialist hospital treatment centre is desirable. (Not all of our clients with serious brain injury are taken to the most appropriate hospital for medium term care and rehabilitation.)
• Financial assistance – Your lawyer will correspond with any workplace or mortgage providers to try and ensure the injured person’s family is not put into any immediate financial difficulty due to the injuries suffered and their inability to work. We will also assist with accessing means-tested and non means-tested benefits.
• Counselling for individual and family – We’ll provide details and contacts for any relevant welfare benefits available and also counselling services, where needed, for all family members trying to come to terms with what has happened.
• Providing a ‘buddy’ who has been through similar injuries – You will be offered the chance to meet with someone who has suffered a similar brain injury and has already been through recovery. They can help brain injured people and families work through things in a way that only someone who has suffered the same injury is able to (this is our buddy support programme).
• Appointing a specialist brain injury case manager to provide tailored support – Should the defendant admit liability, we’ll arrange the appointment of a privately-funded and professional clinical case manager who can coordinate everything that you need on a practical level.

We know from our experience that returning home from hospital following a brain injury can be a really anxious time for both the victims and their families.

Mixed with the excitement of being reunited at home, there is often also a fear and apprehension about not having clinicians on hand, and integrating back into normal day to day life.

Some people, sadly, are unable to ever return fully back home and we offer a separate package to find a permanent residential placement.

However, the vast majority of our brain injury rehabilitation clients can go home – and our support usually includes some or all of the following:

• Ensuring support meets your needs – We’ll arrange a meeting with the hospital multidisciplinary team that has been arranging your inpatient care to ensure there is a full understanding of your ongoing needs. Either one of our solicitors or an appointed clinical case manager can attend this meeting.
• Home assessments and adaptations – An assessment of your home can be carried out to identify whether any special aids or adaptations are required, at least for the initial period, to minimise the difficulties faced when moving back home.
• Home help – Arranging personal help at home to assist with ongoing levels of fatigue, including ‘assistive technologies’ experts who can help you select IT to minimise some effects of ongoing problems such as memory and organisation.
• Family support – Ensuring all family members are given the help and understanding they need to cope with any lasting changes in both the injured person’s personality and their levels of endurance.
• ‘Buddy’ support – Ongoing “buddy” support with one of our ‘ambassadors’ who has themselves already been through brain injury rehabilitation following their recovery and faced the physical and psychological challenges.
• Private therapy and support – Discussing and arranging any additional private therapies that may be necessary, if there is inadequate NHS provision in your locality. Discussing and arranging any additional private support that may be necessary if there is inadequate social services provision either in time for discharge, or at all, such as help with personal care regimes.
• Long-term clinical care – Ensuring you have adequate long-term clinical care, where necessary, and which most likely will need to be funded privately due to restrictions on the NHS budget.
• Financial support – Arranging support with managing your personal financial affairs, where needed, to ensure money you receive through your claim will last for your ongoing needs. This may involve setting up a personal injury trust to safeguard your continuing receipt of welfare benefits. In more serious cases a financial Deputy may be appointed to safeguard your money through the Court of Protection.

Depending on the nature of the brain injury suffered, the pathway to maximum possible recovery can be a long one spanning several years.

We know that the sooner someone is able to access appropriate cognitive rehabilitation support, the easier their recovery pathway will be.

It is therefore of utmost importance to us that we offer proactive support all the way through your recovery, subject to having sufficient access to funds.

We will be tough and proactive in negotiation and litigation where necessary on your behalf to secure the funding required and ensure we can plan and provide the very best programme of brain injury rehabilitation.

Support as part of our brain injury rehabilitation programme can include:

• Rehabilitation towards recovery – Help to access specialist vocational rehabilitation provision which will assist you in taking steps to return to meaningful employment or engagement in other forms of activity, such as new personal interests, to maximise quality of life each day.
• Assisting your return to work – Speaking with your employers to explore the possibilities of either adapting your old role or finding a new one, or the possibility of a phased return to work. Following a brain injury, many people need to find a new occupation and we engage specialists who can help with this career planning as well as assist you in implementing it and achieving your goals.
• Identifying new activities – Support in identifying new activities to participate in – some of our clients have been assisted to take up new forms of sport, or enjoyment of music and the arts as well as new hobbies and other activities.
• Accessing charity support – We can put you in touch with local charities and support groups to widen your network of local people who may be in a similar situation to yourself and able to help you. We are members of The Brain Injury Group, a network of specialist brain injury solicitors and support services for brain-injured people and their families. We are also members of Headway, a registered charity set up to give help and support to people affected by brain injury.