It’s estimated that more than 1 million adults inside the UK are currently living with the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Rates of ABI have elevated significantly in current years, with estimated increases over ten years ranging from 33 per cent (Headway, 2014b) to 95 per cent (HSCIC, 2012). This improve is as a consequence of a variety of aspects which includes improved emergency response following injury (Powell, 2004); more cyclists interacting with heavier website traffic flow; enhanced participation in risky sports; and bigger numbers of incredibly old people today inside the population. Based on Good (2014), one of the most common causes of ABI inside the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road website traffic accidents (circa 25 per cent), even though the latter category accounts for a disproportionate variety of a lot more serious brain injuries; other causes of ABI include sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is additional typical amongst men than girls and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and over eighty (Nice, 2014). International information show related patterns. By way of example, inside the USA, the Centre for Disease Manage estimates that ABI impacts 1.7 million Americans each year; youngsters aged from birth to four, older teenagers and adults aged more than sixty-five possess the highest rates of ABI, with men extra susceptible than girls across all age ranges (CDC, undated, Traumatic Brain Injury in the United states: Reality Sheet, accessible on the internet at www.cdc.gov/ traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html, accessed December 2014). There’s also growing awareness and concern inside the USA about ABI amongst military personnel (see, e.g. Okie, 2005), with ABI rates reported to exceed onefifth of combatants (Okie, 2005; Terrio et al., 2009). Whilst this article will concentrate on existing UK policy and practice, the issues which it highlights are relevant to quite a few national contexts.Acquired Brain Injury, Social Function and PersonalisationIf the causes of ABI are wide-ranging and unevenly distributed across age and gender, the impacts of ABI are similarly diverse. A number of people make a great recovery from their brain injury, whilst other folks are left with important ongoing troubles. Moreover, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury isn’t a dependable indicator of long-term problems’. The potential impacts of ABI are nicely described both in (non-social operate) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in personal accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). Even so, given the restricted attention to ABI in social work literature, it’s worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing some of the widespread after-effects: physical difficulties, cognitive troubles, impairment of executive functioning, modifications to a person’s behaviour and modifications to emotional regulation and `personality’. For many men and women with ABI, there will likely be no physical indicators of impairment, but some might expertise a selection of physical difficulties such as `loss of co-ordination, muscle rigidity, paralysis, epilepsy, difficulty in speaking, loss of sight, smell or taste, fatigue, and sexual problems’ (Headway, 2014b), with fatigue and headaches being specifically typical immediately after cognitive activity. ABI may perhaps also trigger cognitive troubles like complications with journal.pone.0169185 memory and reduced speed of data XAV-939 cancer processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive aspects of ABI, whilst challenging for the person concerned, are comparatively quick for social workers and 
other people to conceptuali.
