Over the years I have had the privilege of working with people with disabilities. This is not an area that I was interested in getting into when I became a social worker, but it is the area that I have enjoyed the most. I was assigned to work on a medical assistance waiver program called community alternatives for disabled individuals. The group of people that I was asked to specialize in was those that had traumatic brain injuries. I was sent to training to learn more about traumatic brain injuries and how individuals are affected.
The brain is a fascinating thing. Each person with an injury to the brain is affected differently based on which area of the brain is injured. The right side of the brain affects the functions of the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side. The brain stem is the basic life functions and the frontal lope is the emotions. Many people with brain injury have an issue with memory. The most common affect is short term memory loss. This is the person that will be introduced and will not be able to recall your name or why you are there. In the past when people had short term memory loss the assumption was made that this person would no longer be able to learn new information. This is not true. Individuals with short term memory loss can learn new information they just need to go about the learning process in a different way.
The rehabilitation centers that work with traumatic brain injury survivors are wonderful places. They understand the functions of the brain and help to teach the family members as well as the client about their injury. There are many tools that they use to help the client function in their day to day life. For short term memory loss the main tool is the use of a small note book or daily planner that can fit into a pocket. Several times a day the person writes down what they have done for the day. They also write down any appointments that they have for future days. Each time the person writes in their notebook they also read what was written for earlier in the day. This constant reminder and the process of writing help move the event out of the short term memory portion of the brain and into another area. Once that information moves it can be recalled. Some of my clients have their notebook by their bed so they will read it first thing in the morning to remember what they did the day before and to know what they need to do on that particular day. There are many tool that are used to retrain the brain. It is fascinating work.
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