It’s estimated that more than one million adults inside the UK are at the moment living together with the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Prices of ABI have enhanced significantly in recent years, with estimated increases more than ten years ranging from 33 per cent (Headway, 2014b) to 95 per cent (HSCIC, 2012). This increase is on account of many different components like enhanced emergency response CI-1011MedChemExpress Avasimibe following injury (Powell, 2004); far more cyclists interacting with heavier traffic flow; improved participation in harmful sports; and bigger numbers of pretty old persons in the population. As outlined by Good (2014), by far the most common causes of ABI inside the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road website traffic accidents (circa 25 per cent), although the latter category accounts for a disproportionate variety of much more serious brain injuries; other causes of ABI include things like sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is a lot more prevalent amongst males than females and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and over eighty (Good, 2014). International information show equivalent patterns. For example, inside the USA, the Centre for Disease Handle estimates that ABI affects 1.7 million Americans every year; kids aged from birth to 4, older teenagers and adults aged more than sixty-five possess the highest rates of ABI, with males far more susceptible than females across all age ranges (CDC, undated, Traumatic Brain Injury within the United states: Reality Sheet, out there on-line at www.cdc.gov/ traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html, accessed December 2014). There’s also escalating awareness and concern in 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). Whilst this article will focus on current UK policy and practice, the challenges which it highlights are relevant to quite a few national contexts.Acquired Brain Injury, Social Operate and PersonalisationIf the causes of ABI are wide-ranging and unevenly distributed across age and gender, the impacts of ABI are similarly diverse. Many people make a fantastic recovery from their brain injury, while other folks are left with significant ongoing difficulties. Additionally, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury just isn’t a reputable indicator of long-term problems’. The possible impacts of ABI are nicely described each in (non-social operate) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in individual accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). Having said that, given the limited interest to ABI in social operate literature, it is worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing a number of the widespread after-effects: physical difficulties, cognitive issues, impairment of executive functioning, adjustments to a person’s behaviour and changes to emotional regulation and `personality’. For a lot of people with ABI, there might be no physical indicators of impairment, but some may perhaps encounter a array of physical difficulties 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 becoming particularly prevalent after cognitive activity. ABI may possibly also result in cognitive issues for example complications with journal.pone.0169185 memory 
and reduced speed of data processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive aspects of ABI, while challenging for the person concerned, are comparatively effortless for social workers and others to conceptuali.