brain-injury-rehabilitation-royal-buckinghamshire-hopsital

Hey, I am Hannah Wright, I have 13 years experience in health and social care, starting my career as a Brain Injury Rehabilitation Support Worker. My most recent  role was a Positive Behaviour Support Practitioner. I work for Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital as a Brain Injury Coordinator and Counsellor. I started in July and so far I am loving it.

I mainly work with individuals who have brain injuries including patients who have had strokes. I am part of the multidisciplinary team and work alongside the therapists and also the nursing and care staff. In my role as a trained counsellor, I also support our patients emotional well being. This can look like formal sessions in which we may do mindfulness, talking therapies or it can be more holistic activities such as painting nails to make an individual feel good and improve their mood and self esteem.

Part of my role includes carrying out workshops and mentoring staff to ensure that we are carrying over therapeutic goals so the rehabilitation crosses over from therapeutic to every day life. This includes aspects such as activities of daily living. I am also a trained counsellor, so this allows me to be able to support patients with their emotional needs.

Each day at work can look very different, I may spend my mornings on the ward supporting the care staff with how we are carrying out the personal care of an individual and how we are increasing their independence. I may join some therapy sessions to support joint working with the physiotherapist, occupational therapists, with a plan of how we can integrate this in to his every day life.  I may then run a work shop on understanding behaviour and why people may engage in behaviours of concern and why individuals who have had a brain injury may  be more vulnerable to displaying behaviours of concern.

In the past 6 months of being here I have had some amazing achievements, from seeing someone cook a meal with support, to supporting an individual to gain the skills to get themselves dressed independently. I find that there can be so many small wins that people often don’t think they will ever achieve. And seeing the pride and joy on their face will always make it worth while. I have also been able to do things to develop myself and my skills. Such as talking with students from Aylesbury UTC college about what brain injury rehabilitation may look like and how all the different roles within the hospital play such a big role in this rehabilitation.

I am really excited to see how we can continue to develop neuro rehabilitation and I’m also excited to be delivering more workshops with all staff about positive behaviour support, quality of life and understanding how to support someone who may be experiencing distress and may be displaying behaviours of concern.

Brain Injury Statistics:
  • Every 90 seconds someone is admitted to hospital with a head injury
  • Males are 1.6 times more likely to have a head injury than a female
  • There has been an increase of 24% since 2005 of women having head injuries

  • The common age range of people with brain injuries are 17-25 or above 75

Spinal and Brain Injury Statistics:

  • During a study of patients with spinal cord injuries, 64% struggled with some form of cognitive impairment

  • Studies also suggest that spinal cord injuries are 13x more likely to experience cognitive difficulties than able bodied individuals

  • Studies suggest that up to 59% of the patients studied with a spinal cord injury also had a traumatic brain injury

  • There is no correlation between the level of spinal cord injury and the chances of having a brain injury

Brain Injury Rehabilitation at The Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital

For more information about our brain injury services, treatments and technology, please contact Hannah Wright our Brain Injury Co-ordinator.

hannah.wright@royalbucks.co.uk

or call reception: 01296 678 800