Hospitals do a great job at saving lives, and they are under constant pressure to support the public with a variety of health issues. When a patient gets rushed in with a brain injury, they launch into action, working tirelessly to stabilise them. Sometimes this takes hours, sometimes it takes months, but I think it’s fair to say we are all thankful for the work they do.
But what many brain injury survivors, such as myself, too often find is that once they are sent home it’s difficult to get the right support. My partner James had to fight for someone to visit me at home to help me build up enough strength to have some independence. (Whilst I wasn’t shy about him having to help me shower, it wasn’t how I wanted to be left in my early 30’s.) And after talking to my GP I managed to be referred to a speech therapist . Bear in mind that at this stage my GP had no idea what had happened to me. Yes the hospital in London had updated my notes, but GP’s don’t review them unless you are sat in front of them. So why the hospital hadn’t made the effort to make this referral as they kicked me out, I don’t know.
But even after I had accessed this help (and believe me the speech therapist was AMAZING) there was still a disconnect. My world had been turned upside down and I somehow needed to process that. The trouble was, at that stage I didn’t have the insight to be able to work that out for myself.It took months to get support with my failing mental health, and there were times that I wasn’t sure I’d make it.
But thank goodness I did! And now I want to help plug that Grand Cannon sized gap. I’m not a therapist, so if you are being swallowed up by serious depression, bipolar or any other painful mental health disorder there are others out there, such as Betterhelp who can help you. But what I can offer you is the insight that all too often brain injury survivors don’t have.
I’ve been there, walked that terrible confusing road, and found the hidden path home. So now I coach others on how to navigate that journey too. There’s a lot of potholes you have to side step, and hanging branches that you have to duck, so guidance can make all the difference. And I do this online, so we don’t even need to live near each other. I have an incredible Facebook group full with people who are keen to share ideas. But also I use the internet to speak to people via Messenger or Skype, to talk to them privately about what is going on for them and develop a plan to help get them to a more comfortable position.
So my message is this: even if you live in an area where there aren’t many services, you don’t have to fight this on your own. You do have options! For more ideas on online communities I’ve created that you might want to become a part of, visit Brain injury community.
Does online support work?
Here in the UK we have access to health services available via the NHS, which we pay for via our taxes. But it is under continuing pressure to deliver more with less funding. In the UK, mental health conditions make up around 28 per cent of the total burden of disease, but they receive just 13 per cent of the total NHS budget. Meanwhile, the budget for adult social care, which provides ongoing mental health support, has been cut in real terms by 13.5 per cent in England over the last eight years. This makes it even harder to get on the waiting list for talking therapies, and when you do you could be on there for an extraordinarily long time before you see anyone. And for those countries that usually pay via medical insurance, you often are given limited choices about who you can work with. So what if the person you need to open up to, trust and connect with just doesn’t make you comfortable enough to do that?
With online support you can be in your comfortable space at home where you feel safe. There’s no issues with having to work out how you are going to get to your appointment; organising transport, negotiating traffic and the panic of worry that you might be late and then you’ve gone through all that stress for nothing.
I went to a life coach who lives in Canada. I can’t remember how I found her, and she was specialising in helping people run an online business. But I connected with her and felt like she really GOT ME. So even though the time difference meant we both had to do some jiggery pokery with our schedules in order to be able to chat because of the time difference, believe me, it’s worth it! The amount of times I would find myself crying because she had hit the nail on the head about something that I didn’t even know was a problem because I’d buried it so deep. That would lead to me being able to address things that I might not have even know were relevant to why I was holding myself back from achieving my goals. Honestly it’s such a journey of discovery when you connect with the right person. Yes online support does work because it enables you to have so many more options about finding the right person to help you develop yourself. It opens up a whole new world to you.
This post is sponsored by Betterhelp. More online therapists can be found here. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view.
Other articles you may like:
- Guest post: Hope Clark on “My new normal” following her brain injury.
- Exercise can help your brain injury, not just your muscles
- Brain injury survivor explains why your career isn’t your self-worth
- Brain injury survivors bad brain days leads to trouble
- How excitement can lead to brain injury survivor burnout
5 replies on “Online support for brain injury survivors and caregivers”
I love this – a really good summary of the challenges but existent of fellow Brain Injury ‘experiencers’ out there. I agree that online support has really shown me so much I didn’t realise and at a time when I felt I was fine but plummeted deeper into issues.
Now I see the need for us to fill the gap that is lacking for mental health in our respective healthcare systems (Australia for me, UK for you and a million other places for all).
Great work!
I love that the internet has given the opportunity to have more options. As we are all individuals and we need to connect on a deeper human level when we are reaching out for this type of help, it means that we have access to people from all over the world.
And so much is comparative and similar but psychologists haven’t learnt so after so many years? Very intriguing to see some of the simple things I could have easily been told in hospital.
Thanks Michelle!
I haven’t sought out online support specifically but I do love to connect with other brain injury warriors. Speaking to people that truly understand makes all the difference. Your Facebook group is great Michelle.
AJ 💖
https://findingmysparkle.co.uk
I completely agree because it’s so good to know that there are others out there who can relate to what you are going through