May 13th – 19th May is Action for Brain Injury Week
Headway, the leading brain injury charity is as old as I am. We both began life in humble beginnings in 1979 although our paths would not cross until 31 and a half years later in 2011. This annual week of raising awareness about brain injuries has a different focus every year.
Headway explains:
This year’s Action for Brain Injury Week (ABI Week) will see the launch of a positive campaign aimed at GPs to assist them with diagnosing and appropriately signposting patients and carers affected by the often hidden aspects of brain injury.
The aim of this campaign is to develop stronger working relationships with GPs and new commissioning groups.
By providing information and resources, we want to help GPs better identify patients who may be affected by brain injury and ensure they are subsequently referred to appropriate services.
With brain injury often referred to as the hidden disability, leading to difficulties in diagnosis, many people affected report to us that they have had difficulty in accessing appropriate care and support, despite presenting their problems to their GP. Equally, however, we know that many GPs provide first-rate care to those presenting symptoms indicated that brain injury is, or could be, the reason behind their issues.
Well, you might say, that is all well and good but it is aimed at GPs not me. Maybe you don’t have a brain injury or think you don’t know someone with a brain injury but these injuries can and do affect people just like you and me. Maybe you think brain injuries are nearly always a result of a car crash or horrific assaults.
I survived a serious brain injury and I will live with the effects of that injury for the rest of my life. I sustained mine while standing at my back door in a nightie one February evening. There was no warning, no outward signs of trauma. Instead an aneurism ruptured in my brain and in the blink of an eye I went from thinking about what I needed to do the next day to the very real prospect I wouldn’t see the next day at all.
People sustain brain injuries for all kinds of reasons and we are affected in all sorts of ways. Raising awareness, educating yourself and helping dispel assumptions is one way you can help this Action For Brain Injury week.
