It’s estimated that more than 1 million adults within the UK are at present living with the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Rates of ABI have increased significantly in recent 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 result of many different aspects like improved emergency response following injury (Powell, 2004); extra cyclists interacting with heavier targeted traffic flow; elevated participation in harmful sports; and bigger numbers of extremely old folks within the population. As outlined by Nice (2014), essentially the most typical causes of ABI in the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road site visitors accidents (circa 25 per cent), even though the latter category accounts for any disproportionate quantity of more serious brain injuries; other causes of ABI consist of sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is much more prevalent amongst men than ladies and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and over eighty (Good, 2014). International information show similar patterns. As an example, inside the USA, the Centre for Illness Handle estimates that ABI impacts 1.7 million Americans every 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 within the Usa: Fact Sheet, accessible on line at www.cdc.gov/ traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html, accessed December 2014). There’s 
also rising awareness and concern inside the USA about ABI amongst EPZ004777 web military personnel (see, e.g. Okie, 2005), with ABI prices reported to exceed onefifth of combatants (Okie, 2005; Terrio et al., 2009). While this article will focus on present UK policy and practice, the issues which it highlights are relevant to several 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 fantastic recovery from their brain injury, while other individuals are left with significant ongoing issues. Moreover, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury will not be a reputable indicator of long-term problems’. The prospective impacts of ABI are well described each in (non-social perform) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in private accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). Having said that, offered the restricted interest to ABI in social function literature, it is actually worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing some of the typical after-effects: physical troubles, cognitive difficulties, impairment of executive functioning, alterations to a person’s behaviour and changes to emotional regulation and `personality’. For a lot of people with ABI, there is going to be no physical indicators of impairment, but some may well knowledge a range of physical troubles including `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 getting particularly common after cognitive activity. ABI might also lead to cognitive troubles such as problems with journal.pone.0169185 memory and reduced speed of facts processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive elements of ABI, whilst challenging for the person concerned, are somewhat straightforward for social workers and other individuals to conceptuali.
