independent.co.uk/life-styl...
I *needed* my 8 months in a rehabilitation hospital, after my brain injury in 2005. Without it, I'd never have gone back to work, and my husband would have had to stop work, to look after me and our children. 
Don't take the rehab away - we need it!
Couldnt agree more, without the rehab unit help it would have taken me forever to relearn those basic tasks like walking, washing helping me to relearn feeding myself etc!!!!!
Luckily I didn't need help with speech but they would have been invaluable, to wait days, or even weeks between appointments would have been intolerable and counter productive, ridiculous!!!!!!!! Janet
It was difficult to get appointments with neuro psycology and neuro physio all those years ago. I'm very grateful for the help given by the ABI team in my area. It gave my OH the chance to get back to work as they worked to get me Independant.
We lost so much as a result of my injury but we got invaluable help too. I could not thank everyone enough once I'd gotten past the feelin of being abandoned.
What future would others have who don't have that level of family support.
Uhh someone should protest against this because that is ridiculous!!! I'm so mad!!!
Ooh, I'm glad you wrote that, Negeen. I just wrote a long email to my MP protesting, explaining how important the rehab unit was, and how without it, there is no way I would have been able to go back to my job as a university lecturer.
It is good to have Headway fighting our corner on this and I agree more needs to be done. It is nearly three years since my other half came out of the rehab ward and into outpatient based rehab. The focus seemed to be about getting her out of a hospital bed to free up space rather than taking account of her protracted recovery due to other issues (Hydrocephalus, scoliosis, ataxia).
It may have saved a bed on a ward but in the "big picture" my employers lost out through me having to take her to up to 3 appointments a week, and I lost out with exorbitant parking and travel costs as well as the extra stress of it all trying to make the time up. The outpatient rehab (Speech Therapy and Physio) soon reduced to assigning work to do at home and they signed her off as soon as they could.
The result was that after two years she was actually at a stage where some of the rehab was repeated and she actually got more benefit from it second time around.
The facilities need to be tailored to the individual, there is no "one size fits all" in brain injury recovery. If you are unfortunate enough to make very slow progress then the system appears to fail and you are more likely to be "written off". That is a shame because in some cases progress in recovery can be a life-long experience.
Rant over.
You are all special people and deserve better!
Dev.
I think the role of groups like Headway is going increase as the NHS is wound down and broken up over the next 10 years. People power is what I think we need.
ABI and Mental Health
Acquired Brain Injury Coordinator
Is this normal!
This is just so painful
