SPRING 2007
A word from the
president ArticlesJ. L. TRUELLE
Conferences PublicationsH. Oppenheim-Gluckman
Let
us get to know each other|
SPRING 2007 | |||
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A word from the
president | |||
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Articles | |||
| MALTREATMENT AND TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY : The role of cognitive and behavioural disorders | |||
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J. L. TRUELLE | |||
| "TO BE A FATHER OR A MOTHER WITH A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY" : Tuesday 7th November 2006 in Brussels - Study day report | |||
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Conferences |
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| LONELINESS AFTER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY - 4th May 2007 in Gauchy (Aisne) France - "La Maison du Sophora” and “La Braise” in partnership with E.B.I.S. | |||
| E.M.N. Meeting - 21th to 23th June 2007 in Rome - E.M.N. | |||
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Publications | |||
| "LA PENSEE NAUFRAGEE" | |||
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H. Oppenheim-Gluckman | |||
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Let
us get to know each other |
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A word from the
president |
This is the third EBIS’ newsletter. You will notice that it contains few articles. However, I believe that you have plenty to share with the other members.
This newsletter is yours and exists mainly thanks to you and thanks to the exchanges between you. Do not hesitate to send the suggestions, articles, information, bibliographies… you wish to share.
Ebis lives thanks to the personal involvement of its members who believe in the importance to express the views of the traumatic brain injured persons.
You know that, last November 7th in Brussels, EBIS organised a conference bringing together people with brain injury, families and professionals. The subject was: "To be a mother or a father with a traumatic brain injury". The objective was to measure the impact of the traumatic brain injury on the role as mother or father and to listen to the point of view of parents and children.
The annals of the seminar are available on EBIS website. It was a great success. The participants in the seminar were “touched” by its content.
E.B.I.S.’ adventure goes on in 2007. EBIS will support the next seminar “Loneliness after the brain injury” organised jointly by La Braise and La Maison du Sophora on May 4th, in Gauchy (France). Loneliness will be considered by people with brain injury, families and professionals. Should you need more information do not hesitate to contact us. We also consider organising a seminar about compensation for traumatic brain injured people…
Thank you for helping Ebis to be known and alive; the reason for Ebis to exist is, in particular, the exchange of experiences and knowledge.
I look forward to meeting you on the occasion of our activities. I wish you a splendid year 2007 full of experiences.
Christine Croisiaux
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Articles |
MALTREATMENT AND TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY
The role of cognitive and behavioural disorders
Professeur Jean-Luc TRUELLE
Scientific literature on the subject is limited. A research, on the data basis PUBMED, with the key words “maltreatment and head injury” gives about 20 publications, all devoted to children and particularly to the “shaken baby” syndrome. It seems that maltreatment, in the field of the traumatic brain injured adult, has not been studied.
Therefore, to approach the subject, we have to take into account the studies about maltreatment in general or in other situations, such as Alzheimer’s disease, and to resort to the lessons of personal experience.
Understand a singular and often hidden handicap.
We approach the handicap of the traumatic brain injured person and also the handicap of other victims of acquired cerebral lesions, which has generally a similar expression: stroke in the young subject, cerebral anoxia, encephalitis, cerebral tumour, aneurismal rupture.
In the genesis of the brain injured person handicap, physical disorders play a less important part than cognitive disorders, which play themselves a less important part than mood and behaviour. The last ones are the main factor of handicap and exclusion.
The behaviour of brain injured people can be analyzed and understood usefully, if we take into account the 3 dimensions of the bio-psycho-social model: biology (the consequences of the lesions), psychology (the former personality and the psychological responses to the accident and its consequences), finally the social or environmental dimension (in other words the impact of the family circle, friends, socio-professional context).
Which are the mental components of the brain injured person handicap likely to generate maltreatment?
1) cognitive sequelae involve primarily communication generally speaking, more than the language itself: disorders in attention, memory, executive functions, self-awareness , and also slowness and tiredness.
2) Mood and behaviour disorders are initially characterized, because of the fronto-temporal lesions, by frequent variations, lack of initiative or passivity and lack of control, which can go from desinhibition, often sexual, to addictive behaviour, aggressivity and verbal or physical violence. And also self-centredness, depression, anxiety and this long and painful adaptation process, consisting in agreeing step by step “to live with” the handicap.
How can these disorders lead to maltreatment?
A few examples illustrate the characteristics of brain injured maltreatment.
A walker asks his way to an aphasic brain injured person. He hardly has the time to “get started” and to begin to answer that the person stops him suddenly, telling him: “You did not even say hello!”
In a care home for brain injured people, it is difficult to persuade the professionals of the risks to be overfamiliar and to use the familiar “tu”, natural with teenagers or adults they meet everyday or to tolerate kisses. However, such behaviour is likely to involve the same liberties, in words, then in gestures, by imitation from these easily influenced subjects. For example, a young nursing-auxiliary was victim of sexist remarks, increasing caresses and, as she objected, of physical aggression.
Another person, in the care home, interrupted an educator speaking with someone else. The educator answered, raising his voice and speaking close to his face, that he should not be interrupted when he was occupied elsewhere. The answer was a punch in the face.
Maltreatment can be less spectacular and result in more subtle attitudes, but, little by little, leading either to violence, or exclusion, or both. For example, this other person with an adhesive behaviour with professionals or pairs, begging, interfering in conversations, complaining. He became the scapegoat, was considered to be responsible for the deterioration of the atmosphere. Gradually, he was rejected and, in the end, he was hit.
Another form of maltreatment affected a patient victim of stroke, hemiplegic and aphasic: he refused all activities, managed to remain in bed, curtains closed, most of the day. The staff gradually turned away from him, to the point of neglecting him, still worsening his withdrawal.
Finally, a brain injured young person had found a job in a sheltered workshop. In the morning, everything was fine. But, after lunch, he needed to take a nap and arrived late at work. His work rate dropped. Gradually, he was marginalized and dismissed from his job. A part-time job, with a less sustained pace, would have enabled him to stay in a protected employment.
This last example could be called “maltreatment in circle”, implying brain injured persons and professionals, the first ones maltreating the others and reciprocally.
Mr G…. doesn't smell very nice, everybody notices that and it has been pointed out. He maintains that he washes himself. When doing it, he locks himself up in the bathroom and refuses to be supervised. He eventually recognises that he does not like to take a shower, which he finds unpleasant. Finally he accepts reluctantly to get washed in the balneotherapy room.
When comes the time for personal hygiene, a nursing auxiliariy asks him to pull back the foreskin. He refuses. She holds him tight, her colleague helping her, discovering the consequences of a deplorable hygiene. Mr G…. struggles and hits one of the auxiliaries. They mention the incident. Another nursing auxiliary reacts by telling everywhere that her colleagues were responsible for maltreatment. Upset, the nursing auxiliary stops working. The polemic increases within the professionals.
Finally, the professionals discuss the problem in a plenary meeting. The nursing auxiliaries and Mr G... offer reciprocal apologies. He accepts better to take a shower, sometimes in presence of another nursing auxiliary.
How to treat well?
Training is essential. It should involve a better understanding of the brain injured people specificities and a better understanding of the disorders as risk factors of maltreatment.
Analysing the situations of maltreatment, is also an opportunity to recall the factors leading to maltreatment and, therefore, to prevent it.
A support group of patients, and also, of professionals and families, helps the psychologist in charge of the group to understand better the feelings of these 3 categories, their pain, their needs and how to give a better answer. In this respect, the structure of the group and the virtue of “doing together” have a therapeutic value.
The behaviour rules, for professionals and patients, make a code of good manners; the elements must be pointed out and written: mutual respect, availability, prevention, treatment and exclusion of drug-addiction, especially in this young population.
The role of the general manager is crucial. She makes and enforces the rule. In the event of a conflict, she is the mediator, likely to calm down and reconcile.
Finally, a time to assess the practices, behaviors, quality of life (individual and within the group) is essential, in order to locate the deficiencies and implement preventive answers to maltreatment.
In conclusion, it is a question of introducing non-violence into a world too often violent.
A first rule is to give the patient, who has difficulties in acceding to the other, time for expression. The time of the patient is different from the time of the professional!
And finally, let us listen to a Christian, a Muslim and an atheist:
“Do as you would be done by”
“Tenderness covers you, foreigner, such as a coat!”
“Politeness is not a virtue. But it is the door to all virtues.”
Professor Jean-Luc TRUELLE
Professor emeritus, Faculty of Medicine of Angers
Former chief of the service of neurology, Hôpital Foch
Expert neurologist, Court of Appeal of Versailles
Service de médecine physique et réadaptation
C.H.U. Raymond-Poincaré
92380 GARCHES
E.mail : jean-luc.truelle@wanadoo.fr
"TO BE A FATHER OR A MOTHER
WITH A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY"
Study day
Brussels - Tuesday 7th November 2006
1. Introduction
The topic is delicate, difficult, painful…. but obvious.
In our society, to approach disabled people’s sexuality took time. Too often, a disabled person was considered as sexless. Angel or demon? Not to mention parenthood ... The turning point is not reached yet. Being disabled and wishing to reproduce is not easy. Being simultaneously disabled and parent is an everyday challenge.
Being the child of a disabled parent is a particular experience. Being the child of a father or a mother who becomes disabled is particularly upsetting. Being parent and becoming disabled brings much anxiety and concern for oneself, the family and the children.
When a parent has an accident, the family balance, the parental relations, the father’s or mother’s identity, the roles in the family… are turned upside down.
The world collapses…
The child loses his/her reference marks, his/her safety,
Dad or mum is focussed on the injured spouse.
The child might be left to him-/herself, alone with his/her questions, his/her anxiety, his/her fears.....
Who is going to support him/her and help him/her to grow up in this context? Who will reassure him/her? Who will be his/her model? How to face what other people think about his/her “father” or “mother” being so different now?
The injured parent is too occupied rebuilding him-/herself and does not have much energy for his/her child.
The spouse holds concurrently the roles, the tasks, runs, and copes the best he/she can and sometimes is lost and drowned in the heaviness of everyday life, overcome by pain…
Literature is limited about all these daily life situations, and the subject is even ignored. Assistance, however essential, does not exist.
Basic care: reanimation, rehabilitation… is focussed on the injured person. But seeing this person as a family partner, as a parent is still at the early stages.
It is urgent to act and support all the partners, so that the shock wave of the accident may be halted, held back, and marked out. Being unhurt by this tragedy is impossible. But it is possible to lighten the burden and to give support.
The objective of this Ebis study day is to look for avenues in order for the child to remain proud of his/her injured parent, for the parent to get a worthy role back, and for the spouses to be supported and not having to pile all the tasks up until exhaustion. In order for family life to carry on with its good and bad moments, with further perspectives, peaceful relations and the desire to move on together…
2. The point of view of brain injured parents
How to summarize these deeply moving testimonies in a few words? An impossible task…
Here are a few extracts…
Sylviane tells us about the most difficult part about being a mother with an acquired brain injury
“It is the distance. I have not been able to share Amaury’s daily life: preparing meals, driving him to school, helping him with his homework, telling him a bedtime story; looking after him when he was ill, being there when he made his first life experiences, guiding him.”
She explains how she felt after her accident:
“Like a mum who was not really one. The first years after my accident, all my energy was used to find reference marks, to rebuild myself. My life looked like an immense puzzle; I gathered the pieces and tried to stick them back together. It is difficult to take care of a child. It requires thinking to a lot of things but I had memory and initiative disorders. I was not able to organize things any more. I was easily tired and very slow. Taking care of a child requires a lot, but everything I had, I needed to use it to get better. Sometimes, I had the feeling that me and my son were not in the same world any more. I could not remember what he liked to eat or do. I could not feel …how should I put it?... or guess anymore, as mums can do, if he was worried, or sad… I was out of phase.”
She talks about the efficient support she got from the social worker of the day care centre she was attending. She learned how to get her place of mum back, taking concrete action like:
“
“You know, I will never be able to make up for lost time with my son. The feeling to have missed a part of his life will probably never leave me; but that makes me combative. I want, more than ever, to be a mum by his side.”
Annie, another mother speaks:
“I am married with three children: Christophe, Virginie and Sébastien. Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, my daughter and my husband are wonderful. My daughter is very much involved, since she took my place at home. So, she helps me to clean the house, to prepare the meals, the laundry…. The result is that I am a completely absent mother, unfortunately for me. Before, I was much involved in my family, in spite of my job. I was a nurse, and sometimes drove 25 km, but when I got back home, I took my place as mother and housewife, doing the housework, the meals… Now, it is impossible.
- How do you feel regarding this role reversal when Virginie acts in your place?
- Very much weakened. And I find it hard to accept, even now. It is not normal for a daughter to take the place of her mother. “
Joris, a father, speaks:
“In 2005, Cindy was expecting our third child. For me, it was the second. We doubted whether we could give something to a third child but we adopted an open and positive attitude and we decided to keep the child. Since my accident, I really live day by day. For me, it is very difficult to plan, anticipate things. I know very well that when you give birth to a child you remain a father for thirty years. But for me, it is very difficult to imagine.
I think that I do not have the feeling of paternity any more. I do not want responsibilities any more. I have the feeling that I do not have any more responsibility, I am less involved. I remain in the background. I do not know where it comes from and I do not like that at all.
I had doubts about my ability to remain a father. My two older sons' upbringing is not easy. I have very little patience. I manage to organise things with difficulty. These essential qualities to bring up children, I do not have them. Cindy, has to do it in my place. I like to be with my children. I could not live without them. I do my best to give them what they need. I want to be with them but I find it difficult to speak to them. When they have problems, I listen to them. But I find it difficult to react."
“In family life, I feel that I have fewer responsibilities. Cindy has the responsabilities. She organises everything; she has doubts about my ability to do some things. For example, after her maternity leave, she will get back to work. I will stay at home but I will not be allowed to take care of the child. Cindy thinks I would not be careful enough. I am less patient than her: for example, I do not stand the tears of the baby; they make me nervous and in a bad mood. That is a great difference compared to the times before my accident. Cindy accepts me as a father but does not accept the things I could do as a father.
Jason, our oldest son, thinks it was better before my accident. I know that I became more selfish. For example, I like too take them to the playground but I get bored very quickly; I yawn and want to go back home. The children find it difficult to understand that. I feel a kind of duality: either I am there for the children, or I listen to myself “
Workshop for brain injured parents: report
27 participants took part in the workshop.
They talked about their difficulties. Common topics gradually appeared which can be distinguished from general difficulties of life, and are the consequences of the brain injury. A great need of expression, exchanges and especially listening emerged.
Topics worth thinking about:
à better information for the general public about brain injury consequences;
à better preparation of family partners;
à training for therapists to answer the questions of the children and spouse. In particular, to prepare the first meeting between the children and the brain injured parent,
à support for the brain injured parent who wants to be there for the homework of his children;
à support for the parents to fulfil their educational duties, and to compensate their behavioural difficulties, their lack of patience.
à priority to day-nursery for the children of brain injured parents;
à encourage early contacts between the children and brain injured parents. If needed, with the help of a neutral person;
à making sure that the custody is respected;
à set up support groups open to families;
à develop the use of the Internet through training and financial support in order to broaden communication skills;
à getting information on a regular basis about what is done in other countries.
3. The point of view of their children
Mr. Guillermou made a striking presentation about his experience as a son:
“I remember a scene in the supermarket, often repeated when I was a child: my father would point the sum on the calculator, persuaded that the cashier was wrong.
Then, he would explain to the cashier that she made a mistake, and as the discussion went on, I wanted to become invisible… “
He goes on:
"Sometimes children of brain injured parents consider life in a special way: nothing seems to have much importance, except the essentials…: add no torment to the human condition difficulty.
I remember a CHRISTMAS, or a birthday: the table was set, the party and the gifts that children imagine…
But we knew that it was fragile as crystal, that family happiness in those moments could end anytime, if a crisis occurred.
This risk, kind of thunderstorm which could happen anytime, created quite a particular atmosphere, the feeling that happiness is transient, that it will never exist completely, that we will be short of time, that fate keeps us from enjoying the party. “
He also speaks about his fear for both parents:
“I remember my mother, model wife, struggling both to raise her four children and to compensate the daily injury… but who, from time to time, desperate because she did not recognize the man she knew before, ran to the bottom of the garden to cry.
In those moments, it was important not to leave our father alone, whose distress was visible in his eyes, suddenly lucid of what had just occurred, or our mother we wanted to comfort.
Sometimes I remained with one or with the other, according to what my brothers or sisters did, so that none of my parents would stay alone with his/her pain, fearing that they might do something irreparable. “
What other people think:
“Why a broken mirror? Because we were aware that our neighbours did not look at us the same way anymore, that our reflection had already faded.
Our reaction was simple: avoid the witnesses (this would actually expose us even more to curiosity) and enter the spiral of a social isolation where only the people in the family circle “could understand”.
If we wanted to leave the circle, it was of course to breathe winds of freedom… those of normality, reassuring because so simple…
But wishing to leave the circle, was it not betraying its members at the same time?
Finding normality, was it not escape and oblivion?
I thought a lot about it, trying to escape this seclusion in which the only alternative would be to choose between absolute fidelity to those belonging to this story (“the only ones able to understand the intensity of the feelings linking the members of such a family”), or on the contrary to exorcize the memories by denying them and their witnesses.
To deny was impossible because it meant losing my history and thus my identity while killing what makes our deepest being.
To be locked up was impossible because that meant refusing life.
The children of brain injured people are funambulists, who know that it is at the crossroads of extreme situations that life is certainly more difficult but that it is sometimes the only bearable situation. “
“To be educated by a brain injured father, to measure progressively what is normal or what is not: I admit that his intransigence and his help gave us at the same time strength and success.
So, this is a tribute to my father, because in spite of his sufferings he maintained a family life, raised four children, kept a house, and helped us in our social integration.
Because of the fragility we knew, the one of the funambulist balance, the one of the difficult or unpredictable moment, we look at life differently. “
4. A few actions:
- “Consultation handicap et famille” in Bordeaux
To be a father or mother with a traumatic brain injury: from the start, the question is one of a systemic look on the family consequences of a pathological phenomenon: the traumatic brain injury.
The “consultation Handicap et Famille” held in the C.H.U. of BORDEAUX favours this systemic approach in order to apprehend all the consequences of the organic phenomenon on the family system of the patient.
The presentation underlines some aspects appearing in the meetings with families having a traumatic brain injured member with important, in particular cognitive and behavioural sequelae.
The event “brain injury” first of all, then its long term sequelae, has a powerful impact on the construction of the ties inside the family, and on the becoming of the family system.
The family system organises a co-evolution of the individuals who are part of it; it has an internal structuring function merging with its proper life. While being modelled, it ensures a relational order which creates stability and a foreseeable nature profitable to its members. What makes the family is: the idea of family.
This collective and individual evolution of the members of the family, co-construction as time goes by, reveals to each one a representation of their family fuctionning and their relations: it is what we call the model.
Each family is unique and original, and consequently has its own idea of the family, its particular model. The “Consultation Handicap et Famille” tries to understand, then to change this model.
The brain injury will disturb the organisation of the system, the shared representations, the model undergoes a crisis.
- ABI Network - Eastern Flanders:
Organization of various support groups:
For children:
Very often, the child wonders who is this other dad, this other mum. He needs information about what is normal after a brain injury. It is important to speak and to explain
For teenagers:
Adolescence is a time of experimentation, during which a teenager needs a reference group.
When one of the parents is brain injured, the teenager must face up to the situation in a special way because he/she becomes free earlier than the others.
For the partners:
In the support groups, the most important thing is to let the partners speak about the means by which they will enter into a new relation; they compare automatically with the roles and tasks which were theirs before the brain injury. So it is about an inner way between feeling and understanding, with a new relation to develop, with ups and downs. It is even more difficult when there are behavioural disorders. There must not be too many ups and downs: we must try to approach the question in a different way: for example, to succeed in calmly managing together.
In Eastern Flanders, there is a need of support groups!
The partners ask for them rather than the brain injured persons.
- Psychological support “La Maison du Sophora” :
Organises a Support group about parenthood:
1. To help parenthood to be recognised
2. To break social isolation
3. To promote self-confidence
4. To help building the ego as a parent by supporting the image as a person and as a parent with competences.
- “Fathers group” in “La Braise” day care center - Brussels:
La Braise, day care center, takes care of about thirty victims of acquired cerebral lesions.
Fathers wonder about their role as “father”: the difficulty to understand their children, to be with them and to get their place as “a dad” back after the cerebral accident. (During the time in hospital and rehabilitation, there could have been a temporary “distance”).
They ask questions about education and relationship with young people, related to / worsened by the difficulties and sequelae of the cerebral lesions.
Due to the great number of questions, from the fathers and from the families, the team of La Braise thought that it would be interesting to answer the questions in a group and to bring together all the dads once a week. Two teachers for special needs, themselves parents of teenagers, started the “fathers” group.
Thirteen adults take part every week. Fathers of teenagers or younger children, looking for assistance, fathers waiting for a separation, fathers anxious about the future of their family …
The main objective of the “fathers group” is to give the father a proper place, during the time of the activity. After a stroke or a brain injury, this concept of “proper place” is difficult to find back.
The tools are: newspapers, movies, TV programme, comics, experience of the person in charge of the group, board games… But the first tool is imagination. All that surrounds us can touch and awake the experience of a father, because we talk about life and communication between two human beings who must learn again to know each other.
The group is another important tool. The teams believes that only a brain injured father can help another brain injured father with an experience which he knows is true, and can support him, encourage him not to throw in the sponge too quickly, and be self-confident. Fathers often blame us for acting too easy on the issue, as we have not suffered an accident ourselves.
Team work is another important tool: a close link with the social worker, the referents and the family meetings. The group knows about this close link and about the work in network.
The main tool for the team is the notebook. The individual notebook is the memory of each person. The topics week by week, the name of the participants (with the name and age of each child), the general feelings, etc…. are recorded.
- Resource Centre - Paris
n Careful consideration about how to inform the children and teenagers of one of their parents’ brain injury or cerebral lesion. Studies about the experience of children and teenagers having a brain injured parent are scarce.
n In order to improve the follow up of these children and teenagers, “l’Association Réseau TC Ile de France” and the “CRFTC” were contacted by the ADEP (Association d’Entraide des Polios et Handicapés) after two studies on the experience of the children and teenagers with a brain injured parent, carried out in cooperation with other structures (Centre médical Jacques Arnaud à Bouffémont, Fondation Vallée à Gentilly).
They developed several tools:
- a leaflet to make the medical staff aware of the importance to pay attention to the children and teenagers of the patient
- recommendations and good practice
- training to make the medical staff aware of the importance to pay attention to the children and teenagers of the patient
- A leaflet intended for children and teenagers with a brain injured parent is in preparation.
- Resource Centre – La Braise – Brussels
The Resources Centre dedicated to acquired cerebral lesion is involved in several projects related to this concept of parenthood.
Starting point: contrast between a real concern of the professionals (during meetings with families or in daily work with brain injured parents) and the lack of literature on the subject.
Parenthood is a vast concept including various realities.
It can be considered from the point of view of the brain injured parent, from the point of view of the child, the point of view of the spouse…
The Resources Centre of Paris was already working on a project regarding children; we chose to concentrate on the two other points, namely: the situation of the brain injured person (father, mother or parents-to-be), and the situation of the close relatives: spouse, parents of the brain injured person, or another member of the family circle.
Our objective: discuss this topic with the people concerned, think about ways to support them (if they wish to be supported) and centralize existing information in a booklet about parenthood and acquired cerebral lesion.
This booklet is due in June 2007, with the financial support of the King Baudouin Foundation.
Support to brain injured parents or parents to-be
We wish to develop and reinforce the existing support groups bringing together, each week, the brain injured parents attending La Braise.
Support to the spouse, parents or other relatives involved in the reorganization of parental roles after the accident
We founded our work on a study requested last year by the Observatoire du Handicap. This study was about the needs and expectations of the brain injured people and their close relatives. 142 people with an acquired cerebral lesion and 84 close relatives took part in the study.
As regards close relatives, the result was: approximately 50% wanted psychological support for themselves. A third of them were able to find this support; the remaining two thirds were still requesting this support.
Another significant result: 45% of close relatives expected more information from the professionals.
In the light of these results, adapted to the topic of parenthood, we wish to make two suggestions:
- the first one would be a psychological support to allow the close relatives to express themselves, to be heard and supported by other people in similar situations,…
- the second one concerned the need for training and information.
5. Conclusions
All the presentations demonstrated the importance and true value of this subject. The consequences of a brain injury on family life are quite complex and various topics were approached. For example, pride of the parents, jealousy towards the partner or the children and also towards the abilities of the children (that the brain injured person has lost). The topic of changes of roles in the family, the family system, the family mission, the need for information, the topic of shame and guilt, responsibility and many others….
To recognize and understand the emotional problems are a central topic; seminars as informative as this one should be organised in the future in various places in Europe.
This study-day also demonstrates the importance of the support, for the brain injured person, taking into account the problems of the children requesting more care. On a European level, it would be interesting to increase collaboration between countries and to consider a synthesis of the various existing groups.
| Conferences |
4 May 2007 in Gauchy
Seminar organised by “La Maison du Sophora” and “La Braise” in partnership with E.B.I.S.
LONELINESS AFTER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY
This seminar will bring together traumatic brain injured patients, their family and professionals.
Place : La Maison du Sophora - 26, rue Martin Luther King - 02430 Gauchy (Aisne) – France
Information : La Braise secretariat : Tel 33 (0)2 523 04 94 – email: la.braise@skynet.be
12th EMN Annual Meeting
Rome - from 21 to 23 June 2007
Euroacademia
Multidisciplinaria Neurotraumatologica
Place
:
Sala Convegni – Complesso Monumentale di S. Michele a Ripa Grande - Roma (Italy)
Président of congrès: Franco Servadei
Infos : www.sinch2007-neurosurgery.csrcongressi.com
Preliminary program (PDF Format)
| Publications |
"La pensée naufragée"
(second edition - ed. Anthropos, Paris)
H. Oppenheim-Gluckman
Couverture (PDF Format)
|
Let
us get to know each other |
NEW ENGLISH LANGUAGE HOLISTIC REHABILITATION PROGRAM
"Beginning in 2007 the Asklepios-Klinik in Schaufling, located in the south-east of Germany in Bavaria will add an English language Intensive Reintegration Program (IRP) to the existing German language IRP. This is a holistic neuropsychological group based training for postacute brain injury patients. The program director is Wolfgang Kühne, Dipl.Psych., board certified Neuropsychologist who is head of the program for 10 years and has been trained by Prof. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, New York. The IRP team is member of the European Group of Holistic Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Programs.
The first new English IRP will start in Setember 2007 under the condition that minimum 5 and maximum 8 participants will be recruited. It is an inpatient treatment in closed groups for three months. Schaufling is 90 minutes by car from Munich and 60 min from Munich airport.
Wolfgang Kühne will be happy to provide more information.
Contact : Wolfgang Küehne
E-mail: w.kuehne@asklepios.com
Phone : 0049-(0)9904-77-2000
Brochure (Power Point Format)