Therapy and Resources for Brain-Injured Individuals After a Motor Vehicle Accident

What Resources are There for Individuals Who Have Suffered an Acquired Brain Injury as a Result of a Motor Vehicle Accident?

It is a challenging process to recover from a brain injury.  Car accident lawyers ensure that injured individuals do not go through the recovery process alone. We work hard to secure the medical support our clients need throughout the insurance claims process and the compensation they deserve when their ICBC claim is ultimately resolved. Experienced legal representation has the potential to significantly enhance recovery outcomes, particularly when coupled with support from resources specifically designed for those who are living with an acquired brain injury.

Therapy and Resources

The types of treatment and support that an individual needs will depend on factors such as symptoms, severity of the brain injury, location of the injury within the brain, and age at the time of the motor vehicle accident. In BC, there are many resources to optimize rehabilitation and recovery for brain-injured individuals, including:

• Occupational therapy to design new ways of performing daily tasks, household chores, and job duties when you are ready to return to work.
• Rehabilitation therapy to help relearn everyday skills such as dressing, walking, cooking, chores and hobbies. (Recreational therapy can also help with the latter.)
• Speech-language therapy to address issues with speaking and swallowing.
• Physiotherapy to work toward regaining strength, range of motion, and coordination (which may have been lost due to the brain injury itself or due to secondary injury such as damage to the spinal cord which causes paraplegia or quadriplegia).
• Vestibular therapy to improve vertigo, visual disturbances, dizziness, and/or difficulties with balance produced by the brain injury.

The above is by no means an exhaustive list. A social worker or case manager can help determine which types of treatment are needed, arrange for support to be received, and help you and your loved ones cope with changes in your life as a result of the brain injury. With access to specialized rehabilitation and proper funding, an individual with a brain injury can continue to make improvements, even many years after the motor vehicle accident that caused the brain injury.

More Valuable Brain Injury Resources

In BC, there are also excellent support groups for brain injured individuals, their caregivers, and their families. For more information about treatment, support groups, and services following brain injury, we recommend the resources section of the Fraser Valley Brain Injury Association. Our brain injury car accident lawyers have also prepared these ICBC claim resources and these FAQs about brain injuries which may be useful if you or a loved one sustained a traumatic brain injury as a result of a motor vehicle accident. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our team for a free legal consultation if you have questions about ICBC funding for rehabilitation or how the insurance claim process works.