Action for Brain Injury Week: Navigating the Journey of Recovery

Every year, Action for Brain Injury (ABI) Week provides a vital opportunity to shine a light on the real-life experiences of people affected by brain injury.

This year, 19th - 23rd May marks ABI week and Carpenters Group are proud to support this important initiative. This year’s theme is “On A Good Day” and Carol Hopwood, our Head of Serious Injury and proud volunteer at Headway Sefton, shared her perspective on the unpredictable nature of living with cognitive injury:

"The impact of a cognitive injury on day-to-day living is predictably unpredictable. Each injury is different. Each survivor is different. Each family is different.

"The rehabilitation journey can be exhausting. Our clients have to dig deep to navigate the balancing act of finding the energy and motivation to keep going in the face of extreme fatigue, pain, anger and frustration and putting in the hard work as they push through to be the best version of themselves. Not only physical hard work but the emotional commitment to stay focussed and driven. 

"We recently spoke to some of our members at Headway Sefton about good and bad days and the message was consistent. Management of fatigue was critical. Knowing their limits, spacing out medical appointments, building in recovery time (often days of recovery time) and not taking on too much were all headline comments. Failure to follow this structure was often the difference between a good and bad day.

"Each injury is different. Each survivor is different. Each family is different."

"Another consistent comment we hear is how friends, family and employers fail to understand brain injury and comments like 'you look ok' or 'you sound normal' or 'why are you always asleep' are reflective of that lack of understanding. But why would they understand? It’s new to them too. That is why it’s so important in our role to ensure that we facilitate workshops, information sharing or signposting to the likes of Headway to help the injured persons wider circle to understand.

"We changed the start time for our Headway Sefton monthly drop-in meetings to earlier in the day because a meeting starting at lunch time and running into the afternoon turned out to be the time at which our members batteries depleted. They didn’t have the energy to fully engage and reap the benefits of being in the group. We quickly switched our start times to late morning and it went from being a bad day to a good day for some if not all. The mood lifted, the energy was more palpable, people were happier and more engaged in activities and more sociable with each other.

"Bad days are tough. Noise is less tolerable, fuses can be shorter, tempers flare and we are told people feel like they are going backwards. It is important to understand what triggers a bad day and try to manage those triggers. Families can often bear the brunt of bad days so it’s important they learn to be patient and encourage rest. These days will test resilience but generally there is a bounce back to a good day with the right scaffold of support around the brain injury survivor. Recognising bad days and acknowledging their normality, being kind to yourself and allowing yourself the time to re calibrate is crucial.

"Recovering from a brain injury is not a straight path and there are many hurdles and frustrations along the way. Good and bad days are part of that journey of recovery as survivors learn to navigate a sometimes-different life path. As we say to our clients - if you have more good days than bad - that’s a win as they continue to move forward."

Carpenters Group are committed to supporting brain injury survivors and their families. We encourage everyone to learn more about brain injuries and support the incredible work done by Headway during ABI Week and beyond.