Life After A Traumatic Brain Injury ( TBI )

If you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury ( TBI ) such as a concussion or a brain contusion, you know the impact these injuries can have on your cognitive, physical and/or behavioral state. With numerous potentially severe side-effects, it can be nearly impossible to manage your condition alone. Lean on the knowledge, expertise and care of local medical professionals to greatly improve your quality of life after a traumatic brain injury ( TBI ).

Achieving Autonomy

Your first goal after a brain injury is to successfully achieve the ability to care for yourself without the need for a professional aid or acquaintance to help you perform essential tasks (cooking, eating, bathing, dressing yourself, etc.).

Building up fine motor functions is the key focus of occupational therapy. Through a series of stretches, exercises and activities, an occupational therapist will help reestablish the connection between your brain and your muscles. These exercises will also strengthen muscles and tendons that have atrophied following your TBI.

Individual counseling will also help brain injury patients manage the emotional distress of their injuries and the challenging recovery process. These sessions can act as a relief for patients or as an educational experience that can help inform patients of their condition and what to expect throughout their recover process.

Reclaiming Vocational Skills

The next step in recovering from a TBI is to return to your most capable professional self. Once you have regained your fine motor functions and attained the ability to live autonomously, you’ll have to resume supporting yourself financially to complete your independence.

From speech therapy to cognitive rehabilitation your vocational therapist will work closely with you to develop a unique treatment plan catered to your current or ideal job and the cognitive and physical skills it will require.

Relying On The Proper Long-Term Care

With the right combination of specialists, the treatment and/or management of long-term TBI symptoms can be a much more positive and optimistic experience for TBI sufferers. Whether your injury is manifesting as cognitive issues, behavioral changes or physical dysfunction, the right medical specialist or multidisciplinary group of specialists can create and implement a treatment plan to meet your needs.

For many TBI patients, recovery requires long-term care to either improve or manage their symptoms. Common long-term rehabilitative treatments for brain injuries includes:

• Physical therapy – If enough neurological damage has been done to the brain as a result of a head trauma, the body may not be receiving the proper messages to conduct normal activities such as walking or lifting. Physical therapy can not only help retrain the brain to perform these critical tasks, but rebuild the strength in any muscles that may have atrophied throughout the duration of your brain injury.
• Behavioral therapy – TBIs can be life-altering events. The long-term symptoms that often occur after a brain injury can have you feeling like a lesser version of yourself. The inability to perform regular activities, favorite hobbies or meaningful work can send you into a depressive state. Behavioral therapy helps to combat negative thinking and work to generate a healthy outlook on your injury recovery and quality of life moving forward.
• Cognitive therapy – Perhaps the greatest fear after experiencing a traumatic brain injury ( TBI ), is that your cognitive abilities will decline. From memory loss to a drop in the ability to process information, TBIs can create a number of life-altering cognitive side effects. Through a series of individualized cognitive therapy activities, patients may regain their previous cognitive potential after a traumatic brain injury ( TBI ).

If you have suffered a traumatic brain injury ( TBI ), you need a complete approach to reclaim your peak physical and cognitive self. Advantage Healthcare Systems offers a multidisciplinary approach that utilizes the strengths of numerous medical fields to generate comprehensive treatment plans in order to achieve significant results. Leave no stone left unturned by calling Advantage Healthcare Systems today at (877) 487-8289.