Brain injury services
Our brain injury services are delivered across specialist sites throughout the UK.
Priory’s brain injury services offer specialist assessments, inpatient rehabilitation and residential support for a wide range of complex neurological conditions, including acquired brain injury (ABI) and progressive neurological conditions (PNC). We support people who need:
Our approach
We work with external agencies and stakeholders to ensure a safe, smooth and effective transition from admission to discharge. Our goal is to provide the greatest opportunity for everyone we support, to receive rehabilitation that's individualised and meaningful, and care that's personalised to the uniqueness of their condition.
The patient is at the heart of all decision making, which is important for the development of treatment plans and goal setting. The involvement of families and carers is important and encouraged, to optimise outcomes.
We aim to promote a quality of life that matters to the people in our services and in doing so, ensure people can live their life to the fullest.
Our services
The breadth of services we provide across the UK allows for comprehensive care pathways and support to be offered across various facilities, including:
- Hospitals
- Specialist care homes
- Community houses/flats
- Supported transitional living environments
We are also able to offer respite care at a number of our services. This allows our services the scope to meet the diverse needs of the people we support, within the appropriate setting for them.
I want to say a big thank you to your team for the very swift and helpful response to my patient crisis. The whole referral and assessment process went extremely smoothly and I was greatly relieved when he [my patient] arrived safely the next day.
Care pathways
At Priory, we have developed our range of services to provide unique and individual care pathways for the people we support. This puts the focus on the person receiving a seamless transition. This means we can support individuals to move towards greater independence in their rehabilitation, whilst still receiving the specialist support they need.
Support we offer
Each of our brain injury sites has a dedicated clinical, therapy and support team. The wider network of brain injury specialists work together to share learnings and best practice, facilitate continued care pathways, and work with external teams to manage a smooth admission and discharge process for our service users.
Each of our sites has a dedicated team who are specialists in the field. Depending on service, this can include:
- Consultants in neurorehabilitation medicine
- Consultant psychiatrists and neuropsychiatrists
- Consultant neuropsychologists
- Clinical psychologists
- Consultants in respiratory medicine
- Specialty doctors
- Nurses
- Physiotherapists
- Occupational therapists
- Speech and language therapists
- Dietitians
- Advocacy
- Healthcare and rehabilitation assistants
- Therapy assistants
- Social and recreation coordinators
- Referral and enquiry management teams to support and help navigate
Brain injury affects each patient differently. The more severe the injury, the more pronounced the effects. ABI may result in significant, and potentially long-term physical impairment. Some of the physical impairments following an ABI/PNC may include:
- The need for invasive mechanical ventilation
- Tracheostomy management weaning/decannulation needs
- Prolonged disorder of consciousness (PDOC)
- Clinically assisted nutrition and hydration
- Continence management with associated adjuncts
- Spasticity management
- Post-traumatic epilepsy
- Supportive seating/aids
- Inability to communicate
- Dysphagia
- Co-morbidities such as diabetes and cardiac conditions
These can also occur alongside cognitive and behavioural changes. Therefore, our programmes are tailored to individual needs, with the aim of ensuring a person’s physical/medical status is optimised, enabling them to engage in a rehabilitation programme.
In some cases, people may need ongoing long-term specialist care following the completion of their rehabilitation programme. We can offer continuing care in specialist nursing homes for people with ongoing highly complex physical care needs (or severe and profound cognitive and/or behavioural needs).
Our specialist brain injury care homes are appropriate for younger residents too. They have higher staffing levels, relevant clinical protocols, and the specialist equipment needed to support any patient, irrespective of their needs.
ABI or PNC may result in a neurobehavioural disability that can appear in the form of cognitive and behavioural changes. These changes may occur alongside physical disabilities for some, and can be impacted by the environment the person lives in.
Cognitive changes
The kinds of changes seen following an ABI or PNC might include:
- Self-monitoring difficulties
- Poor memory and learning
- Poor attention and concentration
- Reasoning, problem solving and decision making difficulties
- Poor planning and organisation
- Slow and inflexible thinking
- Reduced insight and awareness
- Difficulty thinking through consequences
- Communication difficulties with understanding or expression
Behavioural changes
A person's behavioural changes following an ABI or PNC can be one of the most difficult areas for family and friends to cope with. Symptoms may include:
- Irritability and aggression
- Changes in personality
- Overly personal remarks or sexually disinhibited behaviour
- Poor social judgement
- Impulsivity or finding it difficult to wait
- Apathy and lack of motivation
Emotional changes may also be evident. These can include the onset of depression, anxiety, anger or mood swings.
Rehabilitation
Neurobehavioural rehabilitation has been shown to be successful in helping people following an ABI to cope with and reduce levels of challenging behaviour. In addition, we use a person-centred approach which is recognised as a supportive framework for people with a PNC. This approach includes:
- Therapeutic environment
- Multidisciplinary teams
- Routine of individual and group sessions
- Positive behaviour support (PBS) planning
- Regular opportunities for feedback
Our locations
How to make a referral
Our service provides high quality support to people with varying levels of need. Referrals can be made through the individual’s social care team or, if relevant, their local health authority. If you are a professional looking to make a referral, please call us or fill in our enquiry form.