Once that a person had suffered from a brain injury, it is more likely hard for them to recover. This is because many of the things that they usually do will be affected such as doing their everyday activities, going to work on a daily basis, working out, doing their hobby, and more.
This is why there are several rehabilitation facilities that are intended for those people who had suffered from a brain injury. However, some people would not want to be into a rehabilitation and stay there until such time that they recover from the incident. Some people would just want to go home and be with their family instead.
Because of this, there are some guidelines that you need to follow in order for you to recover from your brain injury at home.
Effects Of A Brain Injury
Having a brain injury, even just a minor type of head injury can actually affect the brain function of a person and it can result in him to be temporarily impaired which is usually referred to a concussion. This type can actually lead to some illness or side effects such as headaches, dizziness, memory problems, irritability, depression, and fatigue. There are instances that some people would not have any symptoms within two weeks and some people may be able to have some problems for several months or even years after suffering from a brain injury.
The more severe the injury to the head, then it is more likely to have a long-term effect on the person. Some survivors that had suffered from a severe brain injury have a greater chance of having a long-term problem that may affect their personality.
There are also different types of effect after suffering from a brain injury.
- Cognitive Effect
- Coma and Reduced Awareness State
- Communication Problems
- Executive Dysfunction
- Emotional Effect
- Hormonal Imbalance
- Physical Effect
- Post-Traumatic Effect
- Behavioral Effect
5 Guidelines For Using Brain Injury Rehabilitation At Home
- You Are A Family Member
If you are going to ask someone who had suffered from a brain injury to stay with you, then you have to make sure that you are a family member. Also, you have to make sure that the love for each family member is well maintained. You also have to make sure that you respect your role as a family member.
If a part of this situation can be included during the rehabilitation process, then that the best way. However, if it does not work out that way and fi trying to do a rehabilitation at home can get in the way, then you should think and then let your role as a family member come in first.
- Doing Daily Activities
You have to make sure that you should find ways for you to make some everyday activities and all the things that you want to do and as well as the things that can facilitate towards the goal that you have set.
You can do all this by getting into the “zone of recovery”. The zone recovery is where there are activities that the person who is suffering from a brain injury can do with less guidance or help. This could be a challenge that they can do wherein they can still do it on their own. By the sound of this, obviously this may look boring but still, there is still something that you can gain on doing it.
Keep in mind that what you are looking for is not just the things that the person can actually do easily but also the things that the person cannot do easily thus resulting them to ask for help. This may sound a little challenging for the person who has a brain injury but this is still something that they can overcome and succeed at.
Doing the zone recovery will let you see how well can that person with brain injury be interacting with the family members and to certain situations. This will also imply and would make that person feel that you as a family member will be able to guide him. Doing this will help that person to feel that everyone around him is willing to help in every struggle that he will be going through.
- Pick An Activity That The Person Would Want To Do
Trying to ask the person who is suffering from a brain injury on the things that he would want to be able to do that they are not quite able to do just yet. This way, you and that person will be able to know what are the things that are getting in the way as to why he is having a hard time doing that activity. Both of you also will be able to ask and figure out what are the things that you should do for him to accomplish the activity. In short, both of you will do some problem solving together.
An example of this situation is let’s say a boy who is at around the age of twenty who has suffered from a brain injury and comes home with his family. Now, this boy had one activity that he wants to do like going to their neighborhood house with a distance of five blocks away to see the game and his friends. During this time, there are things that would actually get in his way such as he will get tired easily, or if there is too much noise that will make him feel irritable causing him to become anxious.
In this scenario, what you’ll be needing to do at home is conventional rehabilitation, this will require you to do some physical therapy session at home for that person to improve his stamina, or you can do get an occupational therapist for him to be able to improve his attention. This way, he will be able to handle more stimulation. And a psychotherapy for him to deal with anxiety.
All these things will actually be good for that person, but doing all this will take several months for him just to accomplish the things that he would want to do. An alternative for this is desensitizing to the over stimulation. You can start off by practicing this at home just by watching the game on T.V. Or you can ask him to take the car in going to the game and not finish the whole game yet since he still gets easily exhausted.
To cut it short, make some plans before doing the activity. Though some of the plans that you are going to make may or may not work which you talk about after. Once that you have resolved this issue, then you can go on tiny steps for him to improve the things that he needs to improve.
- Knowing How To Solve The Problems That Might Occur
Since that you are doing some activities with the person that had suffered from a brain injury, then you are more likely to experience some problems that might get in his way. With this, you must know how to handle the kind of problems that might occur. Give him some alternatives that he can do and ask him how he felt after doing it. Rehabilitation process takes some time that is why you need to have all the patience that you can get. This way, both you and the person involved will have an analysis of the things that had to happen and both of you will be able to make some solutions for the analysis.
You will also be able to determine where the problems are and how you are going to approach it. You can also do some compensations wherein you can actually put things in place that will help that person to function better. You can also do some restoring by exercising at doing it over again for him to be able to build the habits that are actually needed to make him work better.
- Give Him Motivation
Let him do all the things that he wants to do. You can start on simple things such as washing the dishes, going to the mall, playing video games, going to a party or even going out for a date. Any kind of motivating activity will be able to help him recover well and faster. There are really some other kinds of a way that you can do as a daily activity and that you will be able to analyze them. They can be cognitive, they can be physical, or it can be emotional. Work with all these things with that person and sooner or later he will be better.
Conclusion
Suffering from a brain injury is not that easy as you will not be able to know what would happen to you after that. That is why it is important that you have to rehabilitate yourself for you or for that person who had suffered from a brain injury will be able to recover. And in case that you would be needing any assistance from a brain injury lawyer, you can go ahead and try to visit the hersheyinjurylaw.com and check out the services that they can offer you with your case.