No family can ever adequately prepare for a loved one to suffer a brain injury. After the initial medical crisis, families are faced with a myriad of behaviors and problems that can be difficult to understand and disruptive to everyday family life. That’s why CORE Health Care has developed this instructional DVD and manual, designed to train families to work with patients in a manner similar to that of staff working in the field of brain injury rehabilitation.
In addition to written material, the CORE Family Trainer packet provides a DVD of conceptual role-play situations that illustrate common problems families might encounter at home with friends or loved ones who have survived a brain injury. Viewers can watch “less effective” versus “more effective” ways to respond to common behaviors, followed by a panel discussion with two rehabilitation professionals and a neuropsychologist.
Actors were not used in the filming of this DVD, but rather paraprofessional staff from CORE Health Care who have had years of experience working with brain injury patients. Their first-hand knowledge of de-escalation techniques and behavior modification gives the role-play situations an authentic feel, not otherwise available had career actors been used. These CORE employees also are responsible for training new staff members, so viewers benefit from that training expertise as well.
As families review this material, watch this DVD and practice the conceptual role-play situations, we hope family members and friends of brain injury patients gain a deeper understanding of recovery. There are two key concepts that should be most helpful for families:
- Behaviors that appear to be willful may not be so. Although the behavior may look to be willful and purposeful, it is often not a conscious act. Many times, these behaviors are the result of the injury relating directly to specific areas of the patient’s brain. Understanding this point allows the caregiver to learn how to avoid taking these incidents personally.
- There is hope for things to improve over time. The very latest rehabilitation research empirically proves that new and permanent neuronal connections can be made, even in impaired brains. The home environment can be a positive catalyst to help foster continued long-term recovery if some thought is given to creating a supportive situation.
Understanding and putting into practice the techniques used and discussed in this DVD will help give some order to what can be an unpredictable and seemingly out-of-control home life for a family following the brain injury of a loved one. The skills made available to families through the CORE Family Trainer DVD are supported by research and are well established principles of treatment found in the best rehabilitation facilities in the country.
