Action for Brain Injury Week 9-15th May 2016

Action for brain injury week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of the devastating effects of brain injury and its consequence. The campaign is organised by Headway and is supported by the Child Brain Injury Trust (CBIT).

CBIT are a charity that was established by a group of healthcare professions in 1991. They have since become a leading voluntary sector organisation that provide support to children, young people and families affected by acquired brain injury, more commonly referred to as “ABI”.

What is acquired brain injury?

The acquired part refers to the fact that the brain injury as a result of an accident or illness that has happened after a child is born. The injury could be as a result of an impact to the head for example a car accident or a fall or following an illness like meningitis.

Socialising with a Brain Injury

This year the focus CBIT’s campaign is to raise awareness of the traumatic effect of brain injuries and their impact on childhood development

The brain is an incredibly complex organ that acts as the command centre for the rest of our bodies. It is vital to our survival; it connects everything together, processes emotions and makes us who we are. The brain is delicate and vulnerable to injury by even small knocks to the head. In children as the brain is not yet fully developed, an injury in these early stages of development could result in a child not being able to develop the skills they otherwise would have.

Common effects of acquired brain injury are:

• Weakness of limbs and mobility problems
• Difficulties with learning new things
• Memory problems
• Poor concentration/attention
• Difficulties using language and keeping up with conversations
• Difficulty with empathy
• Emotional difficulties for example anxiety and depression
• Lack of confidence
• Difficulty socialising

The neurological effect of an injury is sometimes not always apparent, largely because a child may make a full physical recover from the injury. It may only become apparent when a child is in education and they are asked for example to learn to read and write. In teenagers there is the further complexity in that the symptoms from the brain injury can be difficult to distinguish from the emotional development associated with going from child to adolescent.

Securing the correct professional and medical care is vital and plays a key role in a child’s development and their future wellbeing.

CBIT’s aim of bettering the lives of children with acquired brain injuries is shared by me and our firm. We are pleased to be working closely with them and look forward to supporting this and future campaigns (http://childbraininjurytrust.org.uk/donate/)