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. 

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.

Last week, I attended a seminar that was organised by the Child Brain Injury Trust (also known as CBIT). It was aimed at solicitors that specialise in the field of brain injury.

CBIT is an organisation that provides information, support and training to anybody that has been affected by a childhood acquired brain injury. This can be the child themselves, their families or the people that support them. They help people to come to terms with what has happened to them and to deal with their new "hidden disability"; the child that sustained a brain injury might look like they have fully recovered from their accident, but the reality is that they often have subtle but complex needs, which can be life changing in nature.

The seminar was fantastic and covered a wide variety of topics. Aside from the more technical aspects of the litigation process, there was a very interesting session about the impact that a brain injury has upon a child's education and another talk from a case manager about the impact that a brain injury has on a child as they are growing up.  

If you would like any more information about CBIT, please visit the CBIT website 

At Irwin Mitchell in Leeds, we are supporting a charity called SNAPS (Special Needs and Parental Support). SNAPS is a Leeds based charity set up by and for parents who have children with a disability. 

When we initially met with SNAPS, they told us that they wanted to say a big "thank you" to some of the people who had made a fantastic contribution to the lives of others. Requests for nominations were sent out to numerous charities and individuals and yesterday, all of the nominees (along with those that had nominated them) were invited to the “Big T Awards” our office in Leeds. The Lord Mayor of Leeds presented the awards to the deserving winners and we also held a "Big T Party" (with cup cakes) to celebrate their success.

The stories behind each of the nominations were fantastic to hear as they had all gone that extra mile to help. It was an absolute pleasure to attend such a fantastic event and I’m already looking forward to next year’s award ceremony!

Earlier on this month, the personal injury team in Leeds held a fundraising event to raise money for Hannah House, a respite facility which cares for children with severe disabilities during planned or emergency short break stays.  It is a fantastic place which caters for children with a variety of needs up to the age of 18 years old.

The Bollywood Ball was, I am very pleased and proud to say, a great success.  130 people attended and were treated to Bhangra drummers and dancers, sensational Indian food and a turban tying demonstration (a lot more complicated than you would think)!

As a result of ticket sales, an auction, a raffle and games that were held on the night, we raised a fantastic £10,800 and smashed our fundraising target of £10,000!
 

Hannah House will be using this money to create a sensory garden for their residents to enjoy.  Staff in the team are very eager to help with the construction of the garden and I hope that I will be able to provide further updates abut the project as it develops in the future. 

It's been an interesting few days in the office. A partner in my team, Jane and I are working on a case that involves a young client who was involved in a serious fall. The client sustained a very severe head injury as a result.
 
Our client's family initially took advice from a small firm of solicitors who didn't specialise in head injury legal claims and didn’t do much towards investigating the merits of his case. 

When we took over conduct of the case a few months ago, we realised that we were going to have to do a lot of detective work to find out whether or not our client had a claim as the scene of the accident had been substantially altered.  Last week, Jane and I carried out a site inspection and we took the opportunity to see if we could find some witnesses that might be able to help us to work out what changes had been made.  We have also been in contact with the current owners of the site, the planning office and this week, I will be trying to track down some aerial photographers! We already have some good evidence in support of our client’s head injury claim and we still have more work to do. 

Since joining the team in 2006, I have worked on a quite a few cases that initially started with other firms.  There are some firms that do an excellent job in this very specialised area of the law, but unfortunately some don’t understand the issues that come along with head injury cases. People often think that the solicitors that wrote their will or sold their house will be able to handle their claim, when this is rarely the case.  For example, one firm advised one of our client’s to settle her claim for £30,000 but hadn’t realised that she had a head injury. We subsequently settled her claim for over £1million.