Book Reviews Living with Brain Injury: A Guide for Families
Living with Brain Injury: A Guide for Families |
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Written by Richard Senelick, MD & Karla Dougherty This is an excellent summary of the problems brain-injury families have to face for those who are new to brain injury. It gives possible solutions, coping strategies and straightforward discussions of hard choices families have to make. What's "Living With Brain Injury" about?I wish this book had been available when my husband was first brain injured. This is the "Brain Injury 101 class" I needed to understand the effects the injury would have on him and our family. Authors Richard Senelick, a rehabilitation expert, and medical writer, Karla Dougherty, provide an introduction to the brain, brain injuries and the kinds of problems brain-injury patients and families have to deal with. The book provides a comprehensive guide to everything from the different degrees of brain injuries to how the rehabilitation process works. In the final two chapters, the book addresses the problems families may have to face and offers coping strategies, explanations and examples of how different families have managed to deal with the problems that brain injury creates. You don't have to pretend that things are the same when your brain-injured family member comes home as a different person. "It's a terrible state of affairs," writes Senelick and Dougherty. "Roles that have been in place for years, family behaviors that were ingrained for so long they were automatic, family interactions that were once comfortably predictable, are no more." The authors obviously understand the grief and guilt that families face. They emphasize that families need to ask many questions of their doctors and health care providers and seek help from a case manager or social worker. It was helpful to me to hear experts say there may be little you can do to change your brain-injured family member's new and sometimes irritating or offensive behaviors. As difficult as that idea is for most of us, it frees us from the drama created by constantly trying to make them the way they used to be. That allows us to focus on more important issues for the family. Living with Brain Injury is an excellent "first" book for families who are affected by brain injury and for their friends who want to help. It is full of useful information and hope. Reviewer byline: Marilyn ColterMarilyn Colter is the author of "Missing Pieces: Mending the Head Injury Family." Her husband suffered a brain injury in 1982 during surgery to repair a brain aneurysm. She and her family founded the Brain Injury Family Resources web site at www.braininjuryfamily.net Where to buy "Living With Brain Injury" onlineTattered Cover (Brain Injury Family Resources' favorite independent bookstore!) Want to check out "Living With Brain Injury" from your library?Search for the book in a library near you at WorldCat |
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Missing Pieces
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