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Through crafts, story telling, and collage making, psychologists can help kids manage the discrepancy of who their parent was before his injury, who he is now, and how those two can come together.
Art work can help children express how they're feeling about their injured parent. In turn, the drawings can help psychologists help those kids adapt to changes in their family.
When a parent is injured, older children can react — from becoming withdrawn to putting too much pressure on themselves to perform perfectly at school. But most often, kids bounce back.
After a parent's injury, young children often cope and adapt by becoming clingy with other adults, acting out, or regressing developmentally. This is normal and, with help, will pass.
Parents often think that protecting their young children from the truth about a spouse's injury will spare the children. But sometimes kids imagine something far worse than reality.
It is common for children to think they are responsible for their parent's brain injury. Psychologists have strategies to talk these emotions through so as to minimize them.
Role playing is one strategy that psychologists use to help children deal with embarrassment they may have by their parent with TBI, or people's reaction to that parent.
Dr. Audrey Daisley talks about the effectiveness of using crafts or story-based activities for kids of all ages who are dealing with a TBI in the family.
Cognitive and mental issues arising from combat exposure can also contribute to drug abuse. With so many contributing factors, the rate of substance abuse is high in returning service members who have had a concussion.
Brookhaven, an inpatient psychiatric hospital, often has patients with TBI and a history of co-morbid issues like PTSD, depression, personality disorder, and severe behavioral problems.
Ron Broughton of Brookhaven Hospital talks about ways that healthcare providers can use flexibility to help their patients continue to make progress on a daily basis.
The loss of self-identity following a TBI can be very difficult for the injured person and his family. But the person is still there with strengths and weaknesses, just like anyone.
Ron Broughton of Brookhaven Hospital reflects on a success story and one that still pulls at his heart. He talks about the importance of always looking at what his team could do better.
The Elisabeth Kubler-Ross model of grieving shows stages from denial to bargaining to acceptance. For caregivers with a loved one with TBI, these stages are not so orderly.
Healthcare professionals often talk philosophically about the importance of the holistic approach to helping people with TBI, but do their actions match their words?
Ron Broughton of Brookhaven Hospital talks about moving away from standardized rehab treatments for people with TBI and focusing on a truly individualized model.
Ron Broughton of Brookhaven Hospital talks about measuring outcome, the importance of looking at the person as a whole and not as an injury, and erasing the stigma of TBI.
Dr. James Malec talks about the difficulties of measuring outcome in TBI since targeted outcomes can range from the patient opening his eyes to managing headaches to getting back to work.
Holistic rehab is the "whatever it takes" model. Balance issues may be treated by a PT and depression by a psychologist, but therapies overlap for the outcome of the whole person.
Dr. James Malec suggests caregivers try to be alert to symptoms that may develop post-injury like sleep disturbance or depression, but to lean on the side of trying not to worry too much.
It is often difficult for insurance companies — and the families, themselves — to understand why one person with a TBI may recover fully while another person needs life-long care.
Cognitive rehab for people with TBI includes any intervention that addresses cognitive problems — from using a smartphone to help with memory to developing particular visual-spatial skills.