There is always concern regarding the affect that a brain injury can have on an individual. Much research focuses on how to best rehabilitate a brain injury victim, whether the injury is severe or minor.
There is no dispute that a brain injury can dramatically change a person’s physical, mental and emotional state. This type of injury can seriously impede a person’s ability to perform basic functions both at home and work. A worker who suffers a brain injury may find him or herself unable to do the job they had previously been able to perform.
In several different posts, we’ve raised the issue of brain injury treatment. Often the process of recovery is long and painful. Brain injury victims undergo physical therapy and cognitive therapy, sometimes having to relearn basic motor functions.
But recent discourse around the topic of brain injury recovery raises the concern about the lack of certainty regarding cognitive brain injury recovery. While there are many treatments that can help a victim, a technique to restore a brain injury victim back to a healthy state has not been conclusively established.
A clear strategy could be difficult to find because there are a number of different elements to brain injury recovery. Recovery depends on the injury victim as well as the severity of a brain injury. There are also several different ways that physicians and therapists measure successful recovery.
Panel members of the Institute of Medicine are working to come up with more established definitions so that the definitions of injuries, therapy and of success are more consistent across the board.
This is just a reflection of how complex a brain injury is and how it can impact a victim. Not only does the individual have to deal with the brain injury itself, he or she is also forced to accept that recovery may take a lot of time.
Source: The Washington Post: “Clear strategies for treating traumatic brain injury are elusive, panel finds,” David Brown, Oct. 11, 2011
