It is estimated that more than one million adults within the UK are currently living with all the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Rates of ABI have elevated significantly in current years, with estimated increases more than ten years ranging from 33 per cent (Headway, 2014b) to 95 per cent (HSCIC, 2012). This increase is as a result of many different variables which includes improved emergency response following injury (Powell, 2004); more cyclists interacting with heavier targeted traffic flow; improved participation in harmful sports; and larger numbers of incredibly old people today inside the population. Based on Nice (2014), probably the most typical causes of ABI in the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road traffic accidents (circa 25 per cent), though the latter category accounts for a disproportionate quantity of more severe brain injuries; other causes of ABI contain sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is much more typical amongst men than females and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and over eighty (Good, 2014). International information show comparable patterns. 
For example, within the USA, the Centre for Disease Control estimates that ABI affects 1.7 million Americans each and every year; kids aged from birth to four, older teenagers and adults aged over sixty-five have the highest prices of ABI, with guys extra susceptible than females across all age ranges (CDC, undated, Traumatic Brain Injury inside the United states of america: Truth Sheet, accessible on the web at www.cdc.gov/ traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html, accessed December 2014). There is also growing awareness and concern in the USA about ABI amongst military personnel (see, e.g. Okie, 2005), with ABI prices reported to exceed onefifth of combatants (Okie, 2005; Terrio et al., 2009). Whilst this short article will concentrate on existing UK policy and practice, the challenges which it highlights are relevant to quite a few national contexts.Acquired Brain Injury, Social Work and PersonalisationIf the causes of ABI are wide-ranging and unevenly distributed across age and gender, the impacts of ABI are similarly diverse. Some individuals make an excellent recovery from their brain injury, while other folks are left with significant ongoing issues. Furthermore, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury is just not a trusted indicator of long-term problems’. The possible impacts of ABI are effectively described both in (non-social work) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in personal accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). Even so, offered the restricted focus to ABI in social perform literature, it really is worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing some of the frequent after-effects: physical troubles, cognitive issues, impairment of executive functioning, changes to a person’s behaviour and modifications to emotional regulation and `personality’. For a lot of men and women with ABI, there will likely be no physical indicators of impairment, but some may perhaps expertise a range of physical troubles which includes `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 becoming specifically prevalent right after cognitive activity. ABI may well also bring about cognitive issues for DM-3189 supplement example difficulties with journal.pone.0169185 memory and reduced speed of data processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive aspects of ABI, whilst difficult for the individual concerned, are comparatively simple for social workers and other people to conceptuali.