Views of loved ones/the general public on brain injury survivors

            If one thing is for sure, it’s that brain injuries are difficult for everyone involved. Whether it be the friends or family of a survivor, it effects every member of the party in some way shape or form. A study done by Mandi Broodryk et al. discussed the experiences of the family caregivers of acquired brain injury patients. The research was done by having 12 female caregivers, related to the brain injury patients, meet with a clinical psychologist and describe their experiences. The data was collected by determining the common trends or patterns throughout the twelve interviews. The three common themes that came out of the analysis was ‘shock’ after hearing the news, poor experiences in hospitals and having difficult interactions with doctors. The study concluded that the family caregivers of traumatic brain injury patients undergo a lot of stress and should be supported throughout the process of the individual’s recovery.

           It is apparent that brain injuries are stressful for members of all parties. A blog written by Nicole Bingaman discusses the struggles of having a son with a brain injury. She mentions some of the many struggles her son, Taylor, has had since his injury, and how it affected her. She mentioned having to plan her entire day around her son, so it wouldn’t be too overtaxing or stressful for him. Bingaman also discussed how difficult it was seeing Taylor go through all his emotional and physical struggles. While these experiences were negative for Taylor and his family, Nicole mentions how strong and courageous brain injury survivors are to make it through their never-ending struggles. 

            The public has varying opinions on brain injury survivors. The article “Violent, caring unpredictable: Public views on survivors of brain injury” performs a study to determine which common characteristics could be used to describe brain injury survivors. The researchers used a 20-item list of qualities that may be used to describe brain injury patients; and gave the list as a survey to 233 participants. Within the group of participants, 169 were psychology students and 154 were members of the general public. The researchers assessed the differences in answers between the two different groups and ultimately found that the general members of the public associated brain injury survivors with more negative connotations. In general, the public was more likely to see brain injury patients as more unpredictable, less caring and with less intellectual competency. This goes to show that the less educated people are about brain injuries, the more likely they are to view brain injury survivors in a negative light. This is why the psychology majors, who are much more informed on the subject, saw fewer negative connotations with acquired brain injury patients. 

 Linden, M.A. (2006, October 06). Violent, caring, unpredictable: Public views on survivors of brain injury. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0887617706001260#aep-section-id24

Bingaman, N. (2018, September 10). The Balloon. Retrieved from https://www.brainline.org/blog/permission-tell-truth/balloon

Broodryk, M. (2015, August 11). Initial experiences of family caregivers of survivors of a traumatic brain injury. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5433476/