I watched ‘Hammond meets Moss’ programme on television last night.  Richard Hammond (of Top Gear fame) met the motor racing driver Stirling Moss to talk about the brain injuries they both sustained in motor car accidents. 

It was a very interesting programme and a good insight into brain injury from a very personal perspective.  So many programmes, books and lectures deal with the anatomy or mechanics of brain injury but not individual people’s experiences of their own brain injury. 

Both Stirling Moss and Richard Hammond suffered severe brain injuries (Stirling Moss was in a coma for over a month) and have made very good recoveries on face value but talked of the subtle difficulties they experience and how they have developed ways of coping.  Their difficulties included problems with concentration, for example Stirling Moss appeared able to talk coherently and in depth for long periods but had lost the exceptional level of concentration he had before his accident which enabled him to be one of the best racing drivers in the world.  Difficulties with concentration are one of the subtle problems many of our clients experience after brain injuries.  It is a subtle difficulty which could be easy to miss by lawyers who are not brain injury specialists. 

At Irwin Mitchell we have the knowledge and experience to ensure the subtle difficulties arising from brain injury are fully considered in personal injury cases and not overlooked. 

Radio 4 are currently doing a season of programmes about the brain.  There are some very interesting interviews and blogs, which can be accessed on the Radio 4 website (www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/11/radio_4s_brain_season.html).  For me, a particularly interesting interview is with Professor Colin Blakemore, neuroscientist.  Professor Blakemore talks about the early development of the human brain, which scientists are still learning about.  The stages and times of brain development are particularly important for some of our brain injured clients who sustained injury in their childhood because as they grow their brain will still be developing.  This means that, whilst they may have finished growing physically, there may still be a ‘window of opportunity’ for treatment whilst their brain is still maturing.

An understanding of these developments at the forefront of science is important for solicitors specialising in brain injury.  Irwin Mitchell Solicitors are national leaders in representing individuals who have suffered brain injuries.  Irwin Mitchell specialist solicitors are recognised throughout the UK for championing the legal rights of brain injured clients

This month I attended a brain injury conference organised by St Andrews Healthcare, a charity focused on brain injury and mental health.  It was a very interesting day and I met lots of specialist brain injury clinicians, therapists and professionals from across the country. 

It was a great opportunity to meet these people and understand more about their specialisms and gain a better insight into their day-to-day work with brain injured people.  They were all interested in learning more about Irwin Mitchell too.  Most of the people I spoke to had come across Irwin Mitchell before, generally because we represented one of their patients or clients, but wanted to know more about our specialist work and our unique approach to rehabilitation.  A number of people also asked how they could refer their patients or clients to us so that we could assist them with a personal injury claim.  It was fantastic to know that these brain injury specialists rated our legal expertise so highly that they wanted us to help their patients too.

Last week I read an interesting article in the paper regarding road safety and recent government figures on the number of accidents and deaths.

The good news is that the number of deaths arising from road accidents has fallen by 16% since 2009 and is now at the lowest level since records began n 1926, but the figure is still very concerning: 1,857 people died in road accidents last year.

One area where the situation has worsened is cyclists’ deaths.  As more and more people are cycling to work for health and environmental reasons it is worrying that they might not be safe doing so.

Taking precautions, such as wearing high visibility clothing, is of course sensible but council investments into designated cycle lanes is crucial.

Cyclists are particularly vulnerable to head injuries. At Irwin Mitchell we represent many cyclists who have suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a road traffic accident, in addition to large number of pedestrians and also those in vehicles at the time of accidents.  We have experts who specialise in cyclist and motorbike claims, in addition to specialists in a wide range of other areas.

According to Headway, more than 120,000 people in the UK are suffering from the long term effects of brain injury. Here in my own city of Leeds, an estimated 3000 people attend a hospital every year as a result of a diagnosed brain injury but less than 300 (i.e. 10%) require neurosurgery. 

Although 90% of people don’t require neurosurgery following a brain injury, they will probably have varying degrees of cognitive deficits. For example, they may have problems with their memory, concentration and ability to make decisions. They may also find it difficult to problem solve, show initiative and to organise things.  No wonder traumatic brain injury is referred to as a “silent epidemic”. 

There is some very interesting research taking place in Leeds at the moment about the relationship between head injuries and the homeless population.  Although there is some way to go until the research is published, the preliminary results indicate that around 50% of the homeless people in Leeds may be suffering from the effects of head injury. 

Leeds is the only city in the country to have a dedicated worker that supports people who are homeless and have a brain injury.  He is making a real difference and helping his clients to regain some control and independence in their lives. Hopefully, other cities will realise what a great job he is doing and more support will be offered to homeless people up and down the country. 

Brain Injury Awareness week runs from 9-15 May 2011. During this time, many organisations and charities will be undertaking numerous events with a view to highlighting the issues around acquired brain injuries.

Last week I visited some of the regional branches of Headway, the brain injury charity, to learn more about what they do for their service users and what they are planning for brain injury awareness week. The staff and service users of both Headway Devon, based in Exeter, and Headway Bristol, located on the Frenchay Hospital site in Bristol, were extremely helpful in giving an insight into what they do on a daily basis.

Headway Devon also has centres in Honiton, Tiverton, Exmouth, Torquay and Okehampton, so covering the entirety of Devon. Each of the centres offers one or two days each week when people with acquired brain injuries can meet, socialise and benefit from the services the centres provide. The centres are supported by full time Headway staff – usually two staff members at each session - and also benefit from volunteers (often university students). They have formal placements including those on a youth offenders project, where young people who have been involved in incidents where they may have caused such injuries to someone else, attend to learn about the impact of brain injury on someone’s life, often acting as a successful deterrent from reoffending.

The Exeter centre, which I visited, provides a relaxed and welcoming environment. It very much focuses on increasing independence – most service users travel to and from the centre by their own means – and provides therapeutic and social benefits to the service users through such means as art, photography and drama, many of which are provided by volunteers.

Headway Devon is one of the only Headway groups to offer services to children, a valuable service which allows children with brain injuries to grow in confidence and facilitates integration with non-injured kids, especially at school.

Headway Bristol was one of the first Headway branches – existing even before Headway UK was established. Through negotiations with Frenchay Hospital, they managed to secure land on which to build a tailor made centre and raised the funds to build it themselves. The result is, similarly, a friendly, welcoming place for the users to attend.

The unit at Frenchay is open every day of the week, providing services to people of differing levels of ABI depending on the session attended. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday sessions are more focussed at the unit and a huge variety of activities are provided ranging from practical work such as learning via computers, speech and language and art sessions to games and gardening. A second group is run at Withywood, providing services to those service users based in North Somerset.

The Monday and Friday sessions provide an opportunity for those further down their rehabilitation path to access the community and again, independence is key with focus on using local transport and planning their own activities. The opportunities available to the centre users is ever changing and it was clear that the staff work extremely hard to keep things fresh, interesting and challenging for those attending. There are opportunities for people to get out and meet other people in a similar position to them and even to go on holiday, with the branch offering one UK based and one foreign holiday each year.

Both Headway branches also offer outreach services to clients throughout their geographic areas ensuring that everyone’s needs are met.

Overall, it was clear to me from both visits that Headway provide exceptional services to those who have sustained acquired brain injuries and the work done by these groups is invaluable.

At Irwin Mitchell we do lots of charity work and work with voluntary organisations, universities, colleges and more outside our day-to-day work representing seriously injured clients – it makes us very busy but it’s great fun and very rewarding!

One recent ‘extra-curricular’ activity for me was a Mock Trial which I organised with two of my colleagues from our Birmingham office for The College of Law in Birmingham.  The aim was to show students how interesting and rewarding it can be to represent people who have sustained head injuries and serious orthopaedic injuries in accidents. 

The Mock Trial was a great success.  We gave students an insight into the complexity of our work and the commitment involved in bringing all of our cases to successful conclusions for our clients.  The students gave us really good feedback which was fantastic.

Our work at Irwin Mitchell involves dealing with complex medical issues arising from brain injuries and it is great to see that medical and scientific progress is being made in this area of medicine.

For example, the University of Birmingham (where I studied) is opening a unique new facility, the Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics Centre (CN-CR).  The aim of the CN-CR is to bring together the University’s world-class research and state-of-the-art equipment to gather information about brain structure and function with a view to improving rehabilitation.

It seems that this is very much in the early stages and the possibility of brain injured patients regaining full independence with the assistance of intelligent robotic devices may well be some years off but it’s fantastic to read about developments dedicated to improving the quality of life of people who have suffered brain injuries.

At Irwin Mitchell, we are lucky enough to have a fantastic working relationship with some excellent organisations. One such example is UKABIF (also known as the ‘UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum’), a charity which aims to promote understanding of all aspects of acquired brain injury (ABI).

At their recent annual conference, UKABIF gave out several awards for innovation in the field of Brain Injury. I’m very pleased to confirm that two close contacts of Irwin Mitchell received awards on the night.

Syd Summerfield of CCMS Ltd was presented with the award for "Innovation by a social care worker in the field of ABI". Syd is a Case Manager that we often instruct on cases here at Irwin Mitchell and he was nominated for his input with one of our clients, Steve (not his real name. Steve had been involved in a road traffic accident 4 years ago and as a result of his complicated background he, found it very difficult to trust people.

After two years, Syd had made a real and tangible impact on Steve’s life. This is largely due to the fact that Syd spoke to Steve like an equal and gained his trust through his firm but fair approach. He promised only what he could deliver and as a result, forged an excellent working relationship with Steve.

Over the two years that Syd has been working with Steve, Syd has gradually introduced a package of support and therapy. He has helped to reintroduce structure which has, in turn, given Steve a sense of well being, purpose and direction. This has had an obvious impact on Steve’s family, who have been able to take more of a back seat.

Another organisation that was rewarded for their innovative approach by UKABIF was Trust-Ed, a registered charity set up by a group of professionals and parents with many years’ experience of working or living with young people with acquired brain injury. Trust-Ed were presented with "innovation by a voluntary sector provider or registered charity in the field of ABI" award.

Trust-Ed identified a need to provide specialist education for children who have an acquired brain injury. This is a new concept and to date, there are no specialist schools for children and young people with acquired brain injuries in the UK.

Trust-Ed are currently working to rectify this situation. They are helping to create a school for young people in the UK with ABI which will provide access to rehabilitation within a full time educational setting, integrating the care and therapeutic aspects of their placement within the functional educational context. This will be a bespoke service for each child, to ensure that their recovery is maximised. The school will provide a 24 hour curriculum, so that students will receive rehabilitative education both in the classroom context, but also in their activities outside school. Aside from the usual teaching staff, there will also be a dedicated team of therapists including Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists and Neuropsychological support. Thanks to their innovation, this "ideal" is now much closer to being a reality.

On behalf on everyone at Irwin Mitchell, I would like to congratulate Syd and everyone at Trust-Ed for their thoroughly deserved success.

We all know the feeling - the thrill of Christmas and New Year are behind us and the January blues set in as we return to work. Whilst many of us must struggle through the deep winter days, numerous others will have the excitement of a holiday to look forward to as they whisk themselves off to the snowy slopes of the Alps or perhaps the Pyrenees.

Skiing and snowboarding holidays, ever popular, have seen increasing numbers over the past decade and with them, increasing numbers of accidents. Whilst broken limbs may be the worst injury people contemplate when launching themselves downhill, each of them is also putting themselves at risk of a serious head injury. This issue was a highlighted by the death of actress Natasha Richardson following a skiing incident in Canada in 2009.

There is a lot of argument over the protection a helmet affords a skier or snowboarder from sustaining serious head injuries with evidence for both sides of the argument. A survey by Essential Travel, who have teamed up with national brain injury charity Headway this year to try and encourage helmet use, suggests that wearing a helmet could reduce the risk of a serious head injury by as much as 35% however, other reports suggest statistics as to the safety afforded by helmets is skewed. Numerous websites such as www.ski-injury.com consider the arguments in detail and make for interesting reading.

So far, no conclusive evidence has been put forward as to whether or not wearing a helmet whilst on the slopes will make a significant difference to the risk of head injury and it remains very much a personal choice. Much like an unstoppable avalanche, the debate rolls on……