Neurobehavioural Disability and Social Handicap Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Book excerpt: Persisting neurobehavioural disability follows many forms of serious brain injury and acts as a major constraint on social independence. Rehabilitation services are often not organised in a way which addresses the needs of people with such disability, and relatively few professionals have experience in the clinical management of complex disability patterns which comprise the neurobehavioural syndrome. This book is a compilation of chapters, written by a group of clinicians with experience of post acute brain injury rehabilitation to ameliorate the social handicap experienced by a growing number of people who survive serious brain injury. The aim of the book is to describe the nature of neurobehavioural disability, how it translates into social handicap, and what can be done to address the problems generated by such handicap, through social and behavioural rehabilitation, vocational training, and family education. Consideration is also given to evaluating post-acute rehabilitation methods and selecting the most appropriate form of rehabilitation, both in terms of clinical and cost effectiveness. The book is aimed at clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists working in brain injury rehabilitation, plus all the rehabilitation disciplines, and social workers. The book will also be of interest to relatives of brain injured people who are seeking a better knowledge base in order to understand neurobehavioural disability. Additionally, the book should be helpful to the growing number of therapy care assistants, case managers, and support workers, responsible for the day to day care of brain injured people in the community.