If you've had a brain injury, or know someone who has, then you'll have noticed a lot of new jargon. Any serious injury is traumatic, bewildering, even frightening. It can make the strongest of us feel helpless. However, understanding the jargon that professionals use will help paint a picture of what it is people are doing to try and improve a person's circumstances and allow them to live safely, comfortably, and as independently as possible. 

 

Acquired Brain Injury
Some people are born with health and brain conditions. The word ‘acquired’ is used when a person suffers a brain injury as the result of an illness or accident. 

Care Plan or Care Package
These terms refer to a collection of measures designed to allow a person with a brain injury to live safely, stably, and as independently as is possible. Once an assessment of a person’s needs is made then a toiler made care package can be put together to meet the persons specific needs. 

Case Management 
Case management is the process of finding out what a person with a brain injury needs to enable them to live as independently as possible, by co-ordinating medical, rehabilitation and support. This role may involve liaison with various professionals and agencies, advocacy on behalf of the patient, and arranging for purchase of services where no appropriate programmes are available

Case Manager
A case manager is usually appointed by a solicitor (in the case of serious injuries), or sometimes by a person’s family, to assess the current and future needs of a person who has suffered a brain injury, and to design, implement, and direct a care package that best supports rehabilitation, and living as independently as possible. 

Deputy
When a person with an acquired brain injury has no power of attorney in place, a deputy (or sometimes several deputies) is appointed by the Court of Protection to make decisions on behalf of  someone who lacks Mental Capacity. 

Interdisciplinary 
This term refers to professionals with different skills coming together. In the case of brain injury, a case manager will put together experts to best meet the needs of the brain injured person. These specialists can be doctors, psychologists, rehabilitation therapists, support workers and so on. 

Occupational therapy (OT)
Occupational therapy is the use of activities that can increase comfort of living and independence. The term ‘occupation’, in this sense, means any activity that helps to discover, evaluate, and hopefully treat problems that interfere with a person’s day-to-day functioning.  

Physiotherapy 
A Physiotherapist uses physiotherapy to evaluate areas of movement (such as muscle strength, posture, and co-ordination) in order to improve a person’s general mobility. Targeted and tailored exercises can be used to help movement and flexibility. 

Power of Attorney
This is where a person agrees to give another person the legal authority to make decisions on their behalf. However, in the case of brain injury, a person may not have the reasoning to be able to do this on their own. If they don’t have the ‘capacity’ to make such decisions, then keeping in mind the best interests of the person with a brain injury, legal authority may be granted by a next of kin or a medical professional. 

Rehabilitation 
This term covers everything that can be used to help reduce, or sometime overcome, issues with mobility or understanding following a brain injury, to help a person to reach their best possible level of mental and physical ability.

Settling a case
When a legal case is settled in after a personal injury, it means that an agreement has been reached where the defendant (the person or company that agrees to compensate the claimant (the person who has been injured) without the need for a lengthy and expensive court trial. 

Support Worker, or Rehabilitation Support Worker
These are care workers who help individuals to live as independently as possible by providing support under a care package. They may work alone or in a team, and can help with many aspects of everyday living, including a person’s physical, emotional and social situation. Their work is defined by a care plan, which is often developed by a case manager, to meet the needs of the individual. Often support workers get to know the person they are caring for well. 

Traumatic brain injury 
You’ll often hear a brain injury described as a traumatic brain injury. This term is used when the injury causes damage to living brain tissue caused by something outside of the human body – so for example a road accident or severe sports injury. force. The term does not include brain injuries that are caused by internal issues, like problems in the blood supply, or aging.