EDUCATION ABOUT A PERSON WITH A HEAD INJURY

There is a person who is a regular attender at our church who has a head injury, who makes many feel very uncomfortable to be around because of the head injury, and who is therefore very lonely because of the head injury. So I wanted to do some education about a person with a head injury so that any who encounter someone suffering in this way can feel a little bit more comfortable. I work in a rehab unit with people who have head injuries, so I am very familiar with it. Head injury (also sometimes called Closed Head Injury (CHI), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), or sometimes just brain injury) is the result of the damage done when a person is in an accident and either the brain is bruised by bouncing around inside the skull, or there is swelling in the brain as a result of the injury and the swelling itself does damage. A person can have physical, cognitive, or behavioral problems as a result. Usually you see deficits in all 3 areas. The physical usually manifests with some kind of paralysis or trouble controlling parts of the body. The person may limp, may have trouble using a hand, or may have trouble talking. The cognitive means that the head injured person cannot think as well as he used to. They often have trouble with memory, or perhaps the part of the brain that does math or reading is injured. The behavioral troubles are the part that makes most people feel very uncomfortable. Often a person is very socially inappropriate, maybe having trouble with any conversations with others, maybe interrupting rudely. Another common issue is that the person may be sexually inappropriate. Probably the most important thing to know is that the person is somewhat aware of what is going on, and they don't like it anymore than those who are feeling uncomfortable. They may have some problems in some areas, but not all of the brain is damaged, therefore they are not mentally retarded as a result. They are someone who was just like me and you before their injury and now they are coping with the fact that they are not and probably will never be the same. They realize ,after they have said something inappropriate, that they did it, and they hate the fact that they've lost that control over their body and thoughts. They are often embarrassed and ashamed of who they are, but this is not what God's Word teaches us! We can help them by giving much grace and by being honest and letting them know straightforwardly when and why they have made us uncomfortable.