Family Experience of Brain Injury

"Stop for a moment and think about the person you love most. It may be a child, perhaps a wife, partner or husband, maybe your sister or brother. Now imagine fate intervening, and this special person suffers a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or other form of acquired brain injury. Those who survive, come back to the land of the living, but irrevocably changed as persons - different from the person whom the relative fell in love with. Most academic textbooks fail to capture the effects the tragedy of acquired brain injury has on those around the patient - the relatives. Family Experience of Brain Injury: Surviving, Coping, Adjusting does not. Through the powerful narratives of relatives telling their unique stories, and commentaries by professionals, the lifelong journey of grief, loss, compassion and hope families go through, is vividly told. While this is a book primarily intended for those working with families after brain injury, all clinicians, academics and researchers working in the field of neurorehabilitation should read this book." - Dr Rudi Coetzer, Consultant Neuropsychologist & Head of Service, North Wales Brain Injury Service, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board NHS Wales, UK.

"Family experience of brain injury, by Jo Clark-Wilson and Mark Holloway dives deep into the lived experience of familial care for people with acquired brain injury. It presents a polyphony of views from relatives and their 'expert companions', providing multi-cited insights into the private world of families caring for a relative who has suffered a brain injury.

After the introduction and chapter 1 provide a context to the narratives, chapters 3-7 provide rich, unflinching explorations of parents, spouses, siblings and children's experience of a loved one with ABI. Each is contextualized by the observations of a practitioners who worked collaboratively with them. Chapter 8 draws together the key themes from the chapters, before chapter 9 highlights the hard-learned lessons that have been shared.

Brain injury is an existential crisis; 'without warning, without choice, we are other' (Skloot 2003:ix). Clark-Wilson and Holloway's conclusion notes that the families of people with ABI are often in a unique position of being able to accurately describe the pre and post-accident history of their relative with ABI. As the authors remark, the family members curate the narrative of the one they love. This compelling book tells their stories, with compassion and honesty." – Dr Andy Mantell, Principal Lecturer, Health and Social Care

"Stop for a moment and think about the person you love most. It may be a child, perhaps a wife, partner or husband, maybe your sister or brother. Now imagine fate intervening, and this special person suffers a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or other form of acquired brain injury. Those who survive, come back to the land of the living, but irrevocably changed as persons - different from the person whom the relative fell in love with. Most academic textbooks fail to capture the effects the tragedy of acquired brain injury has on those around the patient - the relatives. Family Experience of Brain Injury: Surviving, Coping, Adjusting does not. Through the powerful narratives of relatives telling their unique stories, and commentaries by professionals, the lifelong journey of grief, loss, compassion and hope families go through, is vividly told. While this is a book primarily intended for those working with families after brain injury, all clinicians, academics and researchers working in the field of neurorehabilitation should read this book." - Dr Rudi Coetzer, Consultant Neuropsychologist & Head of Service, North Wales Brain Injury Service, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board NHS Wales, UK.

"Family experience of brain injury, by Jo Clark-Wilson and Mark Holloway dives deep into the lived experience of familial care for people with acquired brain injury. It presents a polyphony of views from relatives and their 'expert companions', providing multi-cited insights into the private world of families caring for a relative who has suffered a brain injury.

After the introduction and chapter 1 provide a context to the narratives, chapters 3-7 provide rich, unflinching explorations of parents, spouses, siblings and children's experience of a loved one with ABI. Each is contextualized by the observations of a practitioners who worked collaboratively with them. Chapter 8 draws together the key themes from the chapters, before chapter 9 highlights the hard-learned lessons that have been shared.

Brain injury is an existential crisis; 'without warning, without choice, we are other' (Skloot 2003:ix). Clark-Wilson and Holloway's conclusion notes that the families of people with ABI are often in a unique position of being able to accurately describe the pre and post-accident history of their relative with ABI. As the authors remark, the family members curate the narrative of the one they love. This compelling book tells their stories, with compassion and honesty." – Dr Andy Mantell, Principal Lecturer, Health and Social Care