Traumatic brain injuries often have significant impacts on victims and those impacts can be wide-ranging. No brain injury is the same and no two victims feel the symptoms in the same way. One common symptom of traumatic brain injuries is that victims often go through some social behavior problems, but a recent study has released findings that animal-assisted training may be helpful when it comes to injury sufferers and their social behaviors.
Seattle brain injury attorneys have been through brain injuries with victims and their families and they know that the social and emotional effects of brain injuries can sometimes lead people down a dark path of loneliness and depression. Finding new and unique ways to help brain injury sufferers overcome the social problems that they frequently experience is encouraging and may give hope to victims and their families that are going through the painful and exhaustive experience of learning to cope with and recover from brain injuries.
Animal-assisted training study
The ‘Scientific Reports’ study that was published in early April describes the social problems that people who have sustained traumatic brain injuries often have including difficulty expressing their emotions and difficulty feeling emotional empathy for others. Depression can make social problems worse by leading to reduced social integration and social isolation. The study found that when brain injury patients went through therapy with animals present, they were more socially engaged and the animals seemed to provide a stimulus to keep them actively engaged in therapeutic activities.
How brain injuries impact the victim and family members
Brain injuries can be mild to severe and sometimes devastating and injuries impact not only the brain injury victims, but their family members as well. Sometimes brain injury victims suffer long term or permanent symptoms that prevent them from going about life as usual and this of course impacts their families. Some common ways that brain injuries impact and change family life as usual include the following:
- The brain injury victim may lose wages due to being unable to work as a result of the injuries. This is especially difficult when the family previously relied on the victim for financial support. It is even more difficult when a brain injury prohibits the victim from returning to work or only allows the victim to return to work in a reduced capacity.
- Brain injury sufferers are often unable to perform family tasks and chores that the family previously relied on such as driving children to school and activities, maintaining the house and yard, and being the main caregiver for children.
- The pain and suffering that victims experience can be severe.
- Victims may have extensive medical bills and require future medical care. This is especially true when victims require around the clock care.
If you or a loved one has sustained a traumatic brain injury caused by someone else, contact an attorney at Russell & Hill, PLLC to discuss the injuries sustained and financial recovery options. Brain injury consequences can be life altering and this is why it is critical to have an experienced brain injury attorney advocating on your behalf.