During a traumatic brain injury and early stages of recovery, people may experience many changes. Because of damage to the brain, they may feel confused or disoriented. Or, they may have trouble with some physical activity. Luckily, there are many types of brain injury therapies and TBI rehabilitation that can help. This comic helps explain some common therapies that may help after TBI.

This infocomic follows a patient through different kinds of therapy in the hospital as he prepares to return home after his injury. It also explains the following TBI rehabilitation therapies and professionals that can help people with TBI:

  • Physical therapy
  • Speech and cognitive therapy
  • Occupational therapy
  • Rehabilitation psychologist
  • Rehab-focused social worker

Understanding TBI: Part 1

Sam walking into city hospital.

I’m at City Hospital visiting my brother Mike. He was in a car accident.

I’ll introduce you to my family.

This is Mike, and our parents Carolyn and Lewis. He’s been in the Neuro ICU (NICU) for two weeks for his Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

A period of confusion and disorientation often follows a TBI.

Therapies you’ll have in rehab will help you with your recovery.

TBI Rehabilitation

Cheryl is a Physical therapist who evaluates physical limitations, rates how severe they are, and plans interventions to help address them.

Hi Mike, Our goal today is to make a plan to Get you back to walking. Are you ready?

I want you to hold your leg Straight.

Now that we know which muscles need work we can start making an exercise program.

You have some balance issues, but your main physical problem is that you are weak from being in bed for so long.

Most people with TBI are able to walk and use their hands well within the first year of their injury.

Physical limitations Usually don’t keep people from driving or living independently in the long term.

TBI may result in lasting physical effects.

Great work today! I bet you’re tired!

Let’s give Mike some space and check back in for his rehab psych appointment on Friday.

REHABILITATION PSYCHOLOGY

Mike, we’ve gotten the results of your neuropsych evaluation and you did well but there are a few areas where you had some difficulty.

Yeah, some of the tests were really hard!

YOu had some problems focusing, switching your attention between things, and processing larger amounts of information.

These are common problems After a TBI and I expect that as your brain continues to heal you’ll improve in all these areas.

I’d like you to meet with Li; she’s our speech and language therapist. She’ll work with you on your cognitive recovery.

After a brain injury, a person may have trouble with some of the cognitive activities necessary to be independent and competent in our complex world.

SPEECH AND COGNITIVE THERAPY

today we’re going to do some exercises to strengthen your focus, and your ability to organize information.

We call these things “executive function” because they help you be in charge of your life.

I can also teach you some StrateGies for how to deal with some of your limitations.

We’re getting ready for Mike to leave the hospital next week.

As a rehab focused social worker Valentina provides guidance and counseling to help direct patients to the resources that they need and helps with transition out of the hospital.

When Mike leaves next week He’s going to move in with us for a while; the problem is that we don’t have an easy way to get his stuff out of his old place.

We can’t afford to pay movers, don’t have the time to do it ourselves and feel weird asking friends.

So, here are steps in the problem solving method. Look! You’ve already done the first two!

A list of steps for problem solving.

Now let’s list the pros and cons of each one.

If you’re new to the problem solving method, practice with a small problem before using it on a big ones.

EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS

efore using it on a big ones. Since Mike has come to the rehab unit we’ve noticed some changes in his emotions and behavior.

Mike has difficulty recognizing social boundaries.

Mike sometimes says inappropriate things.

Mike sometimes laughs at the wrong time.

Some of the behavioral changes that people may experience after a TBI include:

Mike is almost ready to move back home but with the changes in his behavior and abilities we want to be sure that he is as safe and independent as possible.

As an Occupational Therapist Raj’s goal is to help people be as independent as possible in their daily activities and to help them have meaningful and satisfying lives.

Mike worked with Raj on a lot of things, from remembering how to tie his shoes to cooking safely.

Before his injury, Mike was living on his own but he’ll need to live with us for a while.

So Cheryl told me that Mike’s room is upstairs?

SAFETY TIPS:

That’s great! It sounds like you guys are way ahead of me!

Clutter can be a safety concern, but visual clutter can also cause over-stimulation..

We changed some things based on Raj’s Advice.

For some people it may be a good idea to have someone else control access to medications

Authorship and Illustration

Information Source of Understanding TBI: Part 1 Infocomic

Part 1 of the Understanding TBI infocomic series is based on the Understanding TBI factsheet series. This factsheet was developed by Thomas Novack, PhD, and Tamara Bushnik, PhD, in collaboration with the Model System Knowledge Translation Center.

Related Resources for Understanding TBI

You can learn more by exploring the many resources on our Understanding TBI page.

Related Resources

Infocomics: Understanding TBI: Part 3
Podcast: Understanding TBI: Part 4 (Audio Factsheet)

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