Our News Releases

Brain injury awareness week

28 March 2008

 

With 500,000* people of working age currently permanently disabled in the UK following a brain injury, and with Brain Injury Awareness Week happening throughout the UK from 31 March - 6 April, Sue Ryder Care want to let people know about the care we provide to people with brain injuries, and how our care can make a real difference to peoples' lives. 

Sue Ryder Care gives the kind of care that liberates lives to people who have a number of neurological conditions including brain injury.  We help put back the dignity, independence and confidence that are taken away by the conditions we care for.

Romana (25) suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2004 - she was married with one child and four months pregnant with her second.  After spending months in hospital undergoing operations and giving birth to her second child, her stay culminated in a long term stay in an old peoples ward.

Once Romana's husband heard about the care that Sue Ryder Care provide at their neurological centre in Aberdeen, Dee View Court, he applied for Romana to live there, and she moved in during March 2007.  This is when life began to have a more positive outlook for her.

Romana's brain injury had left her with weaknesses in both her arms and legs, but since she has been at Dee View Court physiotherapy sessions have helped her regain mobility in her arms, and with regular sessions she can now walk a few steps whilst being supported, which is a huge improvement and a fantastic achievement. 

Sue Ryder Care encourages Romana to take part in a great many activities at Dee View Court.

Romana said:

"The best thing about Dee View Court is the people, they are nice and friendly, and we have fun and laugh a lot.  The staff are lovely and look after me really well.  I get to do painting and drawing, go once a week with the breakfast club down to Aberdeen Seafront to have breakfast, we go to the cinema, and once a month some of us go to the local disco at the Beach Ballroom.  I get my nails done once a week, and enjoy doing other people's nails for them."

Romana has learnt to use a computer and she loves playing games on the big plasma touch screen computer, which was one of the pieces of equipment bought with the Jules Thorn Trust grant that was awarded to Dee View Court.  

At Dee View Court Romana lives in self contained accommodation, but nurses are on duty 24 hours a day to help care for Romana's needs.  This ensures she gets some privacy, and when the days are sunny she can go into the landscaped garden, which is a great place for her children to run around when they visit.

Pamela Mackenzie, Care Centre Manager said:

"Romana has a very bubbly personality and a real sense of fun.  She has come on leaps and bounds since she moved into the Centre, is good at encouraging the other residents to join in activities, and is a great influence and inspiration to them.  Her personality has really brought people together in the Centre and she has made a number of good friends since moving in."

There a different types of brain injury that people can get - traumatic brain injury is when the head receives a severe blow or jolt, for instance in an accident, fall or assault, and the brain can be damaged.  Other forms of brain injury are acquired brain injuries, and these occur naturally and can be difficult to predict or to avoid.  These injuries can be haemorrhages, strokes, tumours and viral infections.

Rehabilitation helps many people to regain some of the skills that may have been affected by their brain injury, and can help them to compensate for any skills may they have lost, and through rehabilitation Sue Ryder Care help to make a real difference to the people they care for.

If you would like to help Sue Ryder Care support more people like Romana please go to http://www.suerydercare.org/ and click on Get Involved.

* figure supplied by Headway.

For more information please contact Kirsty Tomassi, PR Manager (Scotland) on 07810 856853 or kirsty.tomassi@suerydercare.org

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