Take a look at our newest Tip Cards on brain injury for survivors, families, caregivers, and direct care staff. They have information on coping and living with brain injury.
We are constantly writing new Tip Cards so please come back and visit this page often.
A brain injury or tbi can alter social skills of survivors and affect their personal relationships. Families and caregivers will find valuable tips to help survivors explore personal relationships and cope with social situations. Many survivors still desire to date and pursue romantic and sexual relationships but find them difficult due to cognitive and behavioral challenges. This tip card gives tips to help survivors develop personal relationships and to avoid inappropriate touching or comments.
Suicide among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is preventable. Many service members are having difficulty adjusting as they return to duty, come home, rejoin their families, go back to work, and resume their lives. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and chronic pain increase the risks of suicide. This tip card for veterans and family members describes the warning signs of suicide, identifies the risks among service members, and discusses how when and how to find help to prevent suicide.
Sleep disorders after brain injury are common. Sleep patterns can change after a brain injury or TBI, such as trouble falling and staying asleep, waking up too early in the morning and not being able to fall back to sleep. Post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD can make sleep disorders even more difficult for survivors and family. This tip card helps all survivors with sleep disorders understand the causes, symptoms and available treatments. It includes tips and strategies for coping with sleep disorders.
This tip card helps explain behavior changes in survivors after brain injury and describes problems commonly faced by their families and caregivers. Learning how to manage difficult behavior can ease the stress of family members once they understand the causes and consequences of these behaviors and learn what they can do to improve the situation.
Behavior after brain injury is often viewed as negative, not positive. Interactions with survivors who have changes in cognition and behavior after a brain injury are often frustrating for caregivers, families and even therapists. Too often they lead to arguments, interruptions and disagreements. This tip card gives strategies to help build positive interactions with survivors of brain injury. It shows how to deal with refusals to participate in therapy or activities with tips on improving the survivor’s motivation.
Anger and irritability are common challenges after brain injury. They can affect relationships with family, caregivers, friends, and coworkers. This tip card helps survivors, families and caregivers recognize the early signs of irritability and anger. It includes tips with strategies for preventing and managing changes in irritability and anger.
Intimacy, sexuality and sex change after a brain injury. This tip card helps survivors of brain injury, families, couples, caregivers and counselors talk about intimacy, sexuality and sex and learn what is “normal” and communicate more openly. It provides practical tips about sex, sexuality and intimacy after a brain injury.
The relationship between spouses, husband and wife, or partners changes when one member of the couple has a brain injury. This tip card helps families, caregivers and counselors understand how a brain injury changes a relationship. It corrects common myths about marriage, separation and divorce after brain injury and gives practical tips for partners.
This tip card helps veterans, parents and professionals recognize and understand the symptoms of PTSD and how it affects the emotions of children in the family. It gives tips on how to support these children and help them understand and cope with changes in family dynamics and parental relationships
There is no single definition of "new normal" that fits every family, since each brain injury and each family is unique. This tip card helps family caregivers understand the adjustment process after a brain injury, for themselves and the survivor, with practical tips for moving forward at home and in the community.
