I was in the car on the way home last night, and as i sometimes do, switched over to radio 4. The programme was called Case Notes and was about how to help people rebuild their lives after a head injury.
The link is below if you're interested:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006th1n
As often on the radio i'd have loved to be able to see what they were doing as well as hearing it.
The most interesting aspect of the programme i found was that they spoke to a post-brain injury counsellor. I see this as a valuable role and it sounded like this was a new idea not a wide-spread service. But why have NONE of the families i work with (to my knowledge) been offerred post-trauma couselling when they found out they had a disabled person in their family?
The only such service i have heard of is for children (and siblings) when they are a little older to support them as they come to terms with being disabled. I have heard of this service but after a referral for a child a year ago they still have not had any input from the service.
No wonder then that we so often end up being a sort of counsellor to our parents, grandparents, children, teenagers, young adults, spouses, aunties, uncles, siblings etc... I do enjoy this part of my job - although it can be very difficult - but it is often late in the process before we even meet our children and this programme, once again, made me wonder why they have never had this support before?
I am impressed that the NHS is providing this support to people who have experienced brain injury and their families... but there is still a massive gap in this service for most of our service users.
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