Brain injury recovery and the importance of rehabilitation

Monday 16th May 2022

Living with a brain injury is not easy and you may need support as part of your recovery.

I have seen many examples of people who have brain injuries suffering from a range of difficulties such as:

Memory loss
Not being able to communicate like they did before
Struggling to concentrate
Ability to care for themselves

While some support may be available through the NHS it can sometimes be limited due to stretched resources or an individual requiring more hands-on or time-devoted care that our national service doesn't always have the capacity to provide.

Accessing rehabilitation with a personal injury claim

When making a personal injury claim after a brain injury we have a duty to consider whether you might benefit from rehabilitation to help with your immediate needs. This means considering how you are now and whether extra support can help you in the short to medium term.

As a result, some of the questions you're asked may be focused on how you manage on a day to day basis. For example, routine questions I would ask are:

How do you manage with getting up in the morning?
Do you need help getting ready?
Are you able to make breakfast, lunch or snacks?
Are you in the house on your own during the day?
Are any family members having to take time off work to help you?
What do you do if there is no one there to help you?
Is your memory a problem?
If so, do you use any methods to try and help with your memory?
Tell me about your work?
How do you think you will manage with work?
Is there any support available at work?

By asking these questions, it helps me to consider what support you might benefit from to get you back to the position you were in before the accident as much as possible.

I already get help from the NHS. Why do I need more?

The NHS is a fantastic service. However, it is only right to acknowledge and respect that its resources are not infinite, and are frequently stretched - this means the help they can provide now in the short-term may not necessarily still be available in the future. Such a prospect understandably causes concern to ABI survivors or their families, especially when recovery strategies and daily living is built around that care.

How can you safeguard your care and way of life?

By utilising brain injury rehabilitation services through your personal injury claim, we can ensure you continue to receive the treatment you need and even access more support or even additional therapies and care options you may not have known were available to you.

What does rehabilitation have to do with a claim for compensation?

Early access to rehabilitation can improve recovery from a brain injury.

Introducing support early on may help your long-term recovery so you can enjoy a better quality of life. The support introduced can help you learn to live with your disability and take advantage of new opportunities that may come your way.

Kelly Christie sustained a brain injury when she was a passenger in a friend’s car that was involved in a crash. Kelly was a young lady with much of her life ahead of her. I was able to work with Kelly, and get her access to specialist support which helped her adapt to her life with an acquired brain injury. Kelly is now working and living independently.

Solicitors help you access brain injury rehabilitation

If your specialist solicitor believes that rehabilitation may help you on your road to recovery, they will advise you of that. We engage with the other side from an early stage to try and access resources to ensure needs are assessed as quickly as possible.

The insurer must consider a solicitor's request in terms of a code of practice applying to claims called the Rehabilitation Code. If the insurers agree to an assessment, we will work with them to select an appropriate rehabilitation provider.

Do you need to have an agreement on who is at fault for your accident before getting rehabilitation?

Sometimes but not always. The insurance company is under a duty to work together with solicitors in addressing an injured party’s needs. There is a code in place that requires an insurer to consider where there is a possibility, or a likelihood, of at least partial fault attaching to their client.

As a result, insurance companies will often agree to an assessment whilst still completing their investigations. But it is in everyone’s best interests for an injured person to recover as best as possible.

Pamela Jack is just one such person. We helped Pamela access early support as she knew early rehabilitation was key to improving her future and reclaiming as much of her pre-accident life as possible.

What type of rehabilitation can be put in place?

The Rehabilitation Code sets out that an Immediate Needs Assessment (INA) must be carried out at the earliest opportunity to identify short-term rehabilitation needs. The INA should be carried out by a professional person with the appropriate skills and experience to identify your rehabilitation needs.

Rehabilitation can include:

Appointment of a case manager to oversee all needs identified in the INA
Adaptations to your home or sourcing suitable alternative accommodation
A specially adapted vehicle that you can drive or access easily
private therapy, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychological therapy or indeed any other therapy to ensure that you get the best possible treatment with the minimum of delay
Equipment and aids to help maximise your independence
Employment of support workers or carers to assist you with activities of daily life
Providing respite for family carers

Appointing the Case Manager

A key stage in the process is the appointment of a case manager. It is important to select someone with the right experience to ensure you get a rehabilitation programme that suits your individual needs and a personal injury solicitor can also help in this process.

You are likely to be receive on-going treatment with the NHS and therefore there is a duty on case managers to co-operate and work with NHS clinicians.

Help with returning to work in the form of vocational support, which can include having someone to help you communicate your difficulties to your employer or making sure that any needs you have now are considered in a return to work.

How are the rehabilitation and care costs paid for?

The insurers are responsible for meeting the cost of rehabilitation, care, aids and equipment.

Does the insurance company have to agree to rehabilitation?

Sadly, no. There is no automatic right to rehabilitation. The rehabilitation code is a best practice guide, it is not compulsory. But we regularly negotiate access to rehabilitation at an early stage due to our detailed working knowledge of the rehabilitation code.

Head Injury Information Days

Digby Brown holds free Head Injury Information Days (HIID) every May which are for people with a head or brain injury, including their families and carers, as well as professionals in the field.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about brain injury, hear from brain injury survivors, and meet support groups and services available.

Stuart Barton
Partner
Serious Injury