Brain injuries have a dramatic and life changing impact not only for the person injured but also for those who are close to them. Irwin Mitchell passionately believe that our clients and their families deserve the best possible medical care, rehabilitation and specialised support after brain injury.
With this in mind, Irwin Mitchell have developed and built a national client liaison team which is a dedicated resource aimed at supporting clients of Irwin Mitchell’s specialist serious injury teams, with particular emphasis on clients with acquired brain injury. Having pioneered the concept of a brain injury client liaison manager role within a law firm on a small scale; Irwin Mitchell has developed this considerably by integrating a full national support team over the past 12- 18 months to ensure all of our relevant clients receive immediate attention from a dedicated and specialised team with extensive understanding of brain injuries.
Why is this innovative?
Complementing our team of legally qualified staff acting on behalf of clients with acquired brain injury, the client liaison team is an innovation in the provision of legal services. It represents a fundamental departure from the traditional model of supporting clients who pursue a claim for damages by referring clients to external professionals. Our specialists have qualifications and experience in clinical, community and rehabilitation services, and by integrating them within the legal team, clients are able to directly and quickly benefit from assistance with rehabilitation and support issues soon after first instructing the firm. Whilst clients are still referred (in due course) to external rehabilitation providers and independent case managers, the client liaison team can get to work before any interim funding or external providers are in place with expertise and sensitivity, as well as guide our clients through the process until they are established with a longer term solution to their needs.
How the role helps our acquired brain injury clients
The ethos of the client liaison team is very much to put the early assessment of our client’s needs first, with an emphasis upon rehabilitation, support with health and social issues and financial assistance, often when a client is most in need in the period following injury. The client liaison team can also give guidance and support to families and others supporting our clients, as well as helping to ensure that the legal team are fully in the picture and able to plan ahead to meet his or her rehabilitation needs.
The team's skills and background
Our team of six are located throughout the national offices of Irwin Mitchell’s serious injury teams, and includes specialists with backgrounds in:
- ABI nursing care
- Occupational therapy
- Rehabilitation case management
- Clinical psychology
The demand for the service is such that the client liaison team are planning to add two further permanent posts over coming weeks, making a total of eight within the team. The client liaison team also work with clients who have suffered acquired brain injury through medical negligence, as well as sudden trauma.
Whilst most of our team have had prior employment in a position working with acquired brain injury, some have also worked with other client groups, enabling the team to extend their service beyond the core brain injury focus. Various features of the service are summarised in the attached flyer which is provided to clients of the firm when a referral is made into the client liaison team.
At the cutting edge
Alongside the vital role in directly assisting our brain injury clients, the client liaison team are at the forefront of delivering continuous enhancement to the service offered for our client group.
Examples of their role include:
- Negotiating with brain injury rehabilitation providers to seek to optimise the services offered by them to our clients
- Maintaining and supplying a bank of educational materials around traumatic brain injury for clients and their families
- Ongoing further education for our own legal staff around brain injury and rehabilitation issues
- Developing the concept of the client pathway for brain injury clients within Irwin Mitchell
- Contributing to the work of the NHS major trauma initiative and maintaining a dialogue with trauma clinicians around improving NHS services for severe injuries
- Providing voluntary work support to brain injury charities and support agencies nationally and locally
Case studies
To help explain how the team's innovative work makes a real and positive difference to our clients, please see these recent case studies.