In the United States alone, over 1 million people each year suffer a traumatic brain injury. Some of the injuries are mild, but others require medical attention and rehabilitation. In recent years, many rehabilitation clinics and day care centers have appeared that focus on giving TBI patients full attention 24 hours a day. In some cases, rehabilitation can be simple. Patients are told what they must do, what medicine must they take, and what exercises they should do by their doctor. By following this advice to the letter, they can get back to being 100%. In some cases, rehabilitation after a traumatic brain injury is a long process that takes a lot of work and willpower to accomplish. The patient has to be analyzed before entering a rehabilitation clinic. This is done by several tests performed by specialized medical crew. These tests have to be completed so that a complete and specialized rehabilitation program can be set up for that particular patient. Patients with mild traumatic brain injury that hasn't had such a debilitating effect will often endure an 8-12 week program. Those with serious brain injuries sometimes never fully recover, although serious achievements are done through rehabilitation. These rehabilitation clinics are often very costly, and sometimes people cannot afford them. Often, certain types of health insurance or government funding can pay for the rehabilitation, but it is sometimes necessary for the patient to attend a research institute that provides free rehabilitation. These facilities apply new and unused techniques on patients and conduct extensive research on the patient during rehabilitation. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that don't recover from a traumatic brain injury and even more that don't recover 100%. Rehabilitation definitely has a positive effect and must be instituted because it can help patients improve their functioning to a level that is as close as possible to normal. |
