Brain injuries happen in an instant and take place over a lifetime. Car accidents are immediate; they rip by within seconds but leave still and lasting damage. Your head injury, be it from whiplash, a concussion, a contusion, or otherwise, inflicts itself even before the sound of crumpling metal fades. Yet the effects of a car accident head injury can last months, years, or a lifetime. Since 470 out of every 100,000 Canadians experiences a car accident injury annually, health care professionals have developed a myriad of treatment options. Toronto personal injury lawyers, having dealt with the provision of benefits, are familiar with many of these treatments, and they can guide you toward the right rehabilitation programs.
The Broad Strokes of Brain Injury Rehab
Because the symptoms of brain injuries can be so variable, from physical disabilities, to cognitive, emotional or behavioural, and speech and language issues, rehabilitation can vary equally. Car accident head injury rehab, then, is both intensive therapy in a clinical setting and monthly at-home sessions on an outpatient basis—and everything in between. The unifying factor is that, with good medical advice and practice and the help of a Toronto personal injury lawyer, all rehabilitation treatments will eventually lead to improvements in quality of life.
Traditional Types of Head Injury Rehabilitation
- Cognitive Therapy
- This is a type of psychotherapy developed in the 1960s that focuses on understanding the injured person’s unwanted thoughts, feelings, and behaviours (i.e. cognition), and working with a therapist to actively alter them.
- Cognitive therapy is used for patients who’s symptoms include emotional and behavioural changes such as mood swings or flat affect.
- Speech-Language Therapy
- There are several therapies under the umbrella of speech-language, but people with car accident head injuries will usually have an individualized treatment plan assembled for them, which hybridizes the existing methodologies.
- Individual treatment plans may incorporate speech, language, voice, and even swallowing therapies.
- Physical and Occupational Therapy
- Physical therapy (PT) is the treatment of lost movement after a disease or injury by means of repeated exercise rather than drugs or surgery. Like PT, occupational therapy (OT) uses exercise; it differs in that it focuses specifically on regaining lost movements, whereas PT focuses on healing injured tissue or broken neural pathways.
Alternative Types of Head Injury Rehabilitation
- Craniosacral Therapy (CST)
- CST is a form of therapeutic touch involving manipulation of the skull, spine, and pelvis in order to regulate the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. Practitioners believe that CST helps patients’ bodies synchronize to natural, rhythmic motions of the cranial bones.
- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
- This therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized room or capsule. The pressure in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber is always greater than 1 atmosphere (atm) and can be as high as 3 atm. Typical sessions last 90 to 120 minutes.
With so many treatment options, it can be difficult to find the right one for you. Consulting a medical professional is the best way to find treatment, but these might not come cheap. An experienced Toronto personal injury lawyer knows how to get the compensation you need so you can recover quickly.
Sources:
http://www.brainline.org/landing_pages/categories/rehabilitation.html
https://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/roadsafety/cmvtcs2013_eng.pdf
http://www.brainline.org/content/2009/06/hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-for-brain-injury-cerebral-palsy-and-stroke.html