It is actually estimated that greater than a single million adults in the UK are currently living with all the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Rates of ABI have elevated significantly in current years, with estimated increases over ten years ranging from 33 per cent (Headway, 2014b) to 95 per cent (HSCIC, 2012). This improve is due to several different aspects like enhanced emergency response following injury (Powell, 2004); a lot more cyclists interacting with heavier traffic flow; elevated participation in dangerous sports; and larger numbers of quite old people within the population. Based on Good (2014), essentially the most popular causes of ABI within the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road website traffic accidents (circa 25 per cent), even though the latter category accounts to get a disproportionate variety of much more serious brain injuries; other causes of ABI involve sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is far more popular amongst men than women and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and more than eighty (Good, 2014). International data show related patterns. One example is, in the USA, the Centre for Illness Manage estimates that ABI impacts 1.7 million Americans each and every year; youngsters aged from birth to 
4, older teenagers and adults aged over sixty-five have the highest rates of ABI, with men much more susceptible than ladies across all age ranges (CDC, undated, Traumatic Brain Injury within the United states of america: Truth Sheet, offered online at www.cdc.gov/ traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html, accessed December 2014). There is also increasing awareness and concern inside the USA about ABI amongst military personnel (see, e.g. Okie, 2005), with ABI prices reported to exceed onefifth of combatants (Okie, 2005; Terrio et al., 2009). While this short article will focus on present UK policy and practice, the challenges which it highlights are relevant to quite a few national contexts.Acquired Brain Injury, Social Function and PersonalisationIf the causes of ABI are wide-ranging and unevenly distributed across age and gender, the impacts of ABI are similarly diverse. A number of people make a great recovery from their brain injury, whilst other individuals are left with important ongoing difficulties. In addition, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury is not a reputable indicator of long-term problems’. The potential impacts of ABI are nicely described each in (non-social function) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in private accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). Even so, provided the restricted attention to ABI in social perform literature, it is actually worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing some of the popular after-effects: physical difficulties, cognitive issues, impairment of executive functioning, PD173074 price alterations to a person’s behaviour and alterations to emotional regulation and `personality’. For a lot of people with ABI, there is going to be no physical indicators of impairment, but some may possibly experience a range of physical troubles like `loss of co-ordination, muscle rigidity, paralysis, epilepsy, difficulty in speaking, loss of sight, smell or taste, fatigue, and sexual problems’ (Headway, 2014b), with fatigue and headaches being especially typical immediately after cognitive activity. ABI may well also lead to cognitive troubles for instance difficulties with journal.pone.0169185 memory and decreased speed of facts processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive aspects of ABI, while difficult for the person concerned, are reasonably uncomplicated for social workers and other individuals to conceptuali.