What affects your progress
Rehabilitation is hard work. And many things affect your progress including:
- how aware you are (related to your Ranchos Los Amigos score)
- your medical condition
- where you are in your recovery
- how well you’re able to keep up with and take part in therapy
- your motivation (how much you want to do something)
- how much time you spend on rehabilitation
- your relationship with your therapists
- your expectations and feelings
- the support you have
A brain injury can affect how well you understand what’s going on, your awareness, and your motivation.
Let your team get to know you better
It’s helpful for you or your family to talk to the healthcare team about how you’ve dealt with other life challenges. This can help them get to know you better so they’re able to give you other suggestions to help with your rehabilitation. You or your family can also let the healthcare team know what you enjoy doing and what’s important to you. This will help them create goals with more meaning.
You’ll likely work with many healthcare providers. And each of them will have their own style and approach. Talk to your therapists and other members of your healthcare team about what style works best for you. They can then include this more in your treatment and rehabilitation plan.
Set realistic expectations
One of the hardest parts of rehabilitation is being realistic about your recovery. Some people make a full recovery and are the same as they were before the injury. Others may only get a little better. Your recovery mostly depends on how bad the injury was.
You may need to learn new ways of doing everyday tasks. Try to stay hopeful that things will keep getting better as you work through rehabilitation.
It’s OK to have different feelings
You may have a lot of feelings during rehabilitation. These can be feelings about the injury itself, how much rehabilitation will help, or how much you expect to recover. You may also feel tired, angry, discouraged, or overwhelmed during rehabilitation. This is normal and part of the process.
When you have a brain injury, these feelings can be even stronger. You or your family can talk with your healthcare team if these feelings are so strong that they may be affecting your progress.
Family and caregivers are part of the team
Having a good support system will help with your recovery.
As family and other support people know what the treatment goals and activities are, they become part of your team. They play an important role to help you get back as many skills as you can and do more things on your own.
Caregivers who watch or are part of the rehabilitation process may also have many strong feelings. Family and caregivers are always welcome to talk to the brain rehabilitation team.
