Action for Brain Injury week – 19-25 May 2025
This week is Action for Brain Injury week (ABI week), a campaign by Headway to raise awareness of brain injury.
This week is aimed at raising awareness of the challenges those with brain injury and their families face, and how a hidden disability causes daily difficulties. The campaign is a call for better services and support for those affected by brain injury, better rehabilitation, community services and care.
Every year there is a different focus for ABI week this year it is “On a Good Day”. The fluctuating and unpredictable nature of a brain injury is something I come across frequently both as a trustee and volunteer for Headway Northumberland and as a brain injury specialist solicitor. The gap between a brain injury survivors’ abilities on a good day as opposed to a bad day can be significant.
The person’s ability to manage day-to-day activities, work, and interact with friends, family, and/or strangers can be significantly impacted by fatigue, cognitive difficulties, executive dysfunction, speech and language difficulties, and mood changes or agitation. There is a general lack of understanding of brain injuries by the public which can escalate these difficulties.
By focussing on these difficulties Headway hopes to bring a better understanding to the public generally to allow those with brain injuries to participate more easily and with less stress in the wider community and lead a call for change and better funding in community services. By raising awareness about the types of difficulties brain injury survivors face, it is hoped that along with the brain injury ID card the public can recognise their needs and be patient and understanding, and offering help in public situations.
As a trustee and Secretary for Headway Northumberland, we recognise how lucky we are to have access to the Northumberland Brain Injury Service, a specialist community-based service, and in Newcastle upon Tyne Walkergate Park Centre for Neurorehabilitation and Neuropsychiatry. Both provide incredible support and rehabilitation for survivors of brain injury. However, further south in the North East, survivors of brain injury face a lack of community services, leaving severely impaired people without community support or resources.
Recently the BBC highlighted that James Cook University Hospital has only 18 neurorehabilitation beds to cover a population of approximately 1.4 million people and has no community team. A lack of funding results in people being discharged with no or little support in the community. In my role at Minster Law supporting those with brain injuries, early rehabilitation is crucial to maximise recovery, and a lack of community services is allowing vulnerable people to be left unsupported to manage their injury alone.
Headway reports there were 355,409 UK hospital admissions for acquired brain injury in 2023-24, translating to approximately 919 admission per day equating to one every 90 seconds. A frightening statistic given the lack of available community services in some areas once people are discharged from hospital.
“At Minster Law, we work closely with organisations such as Headway, to ensure we can signpost our clients and work alongside help them to provide all-important support to those who need it.
In the meantime, we hope that more funding and resources become available across the country to support brain injury survivors in maximising their recovery.” says Rachael Jobson, Partner at Minster Law.
