New Service For Patients With Brain Injury In Lincolnshire, UK

Main Category: Rehabilitation / Physical Therapy
Also Included In: Mental Health
Article Date: 16 Oct 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Final preparations are being put in place for the opening of a brand new service which is set to be launched at Goole District Hospital.

The doors of the new Goole Neuro-Rehabilitation Centre will be open to patients from Monday October 22nd 2007. It is the result of Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust working in co-operation with The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust (BIRT).

The venture offers high quality care and support within an NHS setting, but operating independently of the NHS.

The 14-bedded facility provides post acute and community integration rehabilitation, for people with acquired brain injury, following BIRT's well-established neuro-behavioural model. Under this model, each service user has an individual rehabilitation plan, which includes structured learning programmes, practising daily living skills, community access skills, behavioural management techniques, social skills training and vocational training and support.

In addition the unit offers a short term assessment and rehabilitation service for people with neurological disabilities, such as multiple sclerosis and Guillain Barre Syndrome.

The team of staff includes physiotherapists, occupational therapists, a speech and language therapist, a neuropsychologist and a number of rehabilitation support workers, all of whom will work alongside the existing Trust Community Rehabilitation Medicine Service to provide a continuous link for each individual through their pathway of care from in-patient through to re-integration into the community.

Trust Divisional Manager of Clinical Sciences Karen Griffiths said: "This is a long awaited development for the locality, as previously patients requiring neuro-rehabilitation programmes on discharge from hospital are required to access services out of the area - which brings difficulties for both patients, carers and their families.

"We look forward to receiving patients and supporting this new care pathway that joins both acute and social rehabilitation, enhancing outcomes of rehabilitation and delivers improved care."

BIRT, and its parent charity The Disabilities Trust, will be able to draw on its existing representation in the North and North East to provide a continuum of care for people with brain injury or physical disabilities in residential settings or in its community supported houses or home support packages.

Mike McPeake, Services Manager for BIRT, said: "This is an exciting development, which could act as a forerunner for similar partnerships with other NHS Trusts in future. The project will enable people who need intensive one-to-one support to access our proven brain injury rehabilitation model at a much earlier stage and will have the added benefit of being located much closer to people's homes in North Lincolnshire."

For further information on the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Trust please visit http://www.nlg.nhs.uk

For more information about the work of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust (BIRT), please visit http://www.birt.co.uk.

Source:
David Eggleston
The Disabilities Trust
The Disabilities Trust is a Registered Charity, No 800797

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