An innovative program at Parkwood Hospital is helping people with a brain injury get on the road to recovery faster by teaching coping skills learned through shared experiences.
In a classroom at the hospital, entrepreneur Rob Staffen shares his advice in a program known informally as ‘Brain Injury 101.’
He says “I know as soon as I wake up that I'm having a brain foggy day.”
He experienced a brain injury while biking in California, “I was going sixty kilometres an hour. And I just went head first into the rocks and the desert sand."
For people like Staffen, there can be many challenges in the weeks following a brain injury.
Becky Moran, an occupational therapist at Parkwood Hospital, says “They struggle with going to busy grocery stores, they struggle with people believing there’s something wrong them because they look and act and talk okay, they struggle with returning to exercise."
Developing coping strategies is vital for recovery. However waiting lists for individual counselling can be long. That's where this program bridges the gap.
Through the Steps to Success program at Parkwood, people with a brain injury learn to how to cope.
Moran says " I talk about Using a day timer or technology of some sort that can help with scheduling...some of the techniques in the physiotherapy sessions are returning to exercise in a graded and gradual manner, social work talks about coping and relaxation techniques.”
For Staffen, coping strategies include using a timer to limit daily computer sessions to 25 minutes so that he doesn't feel overwhelmed.
And ultimately, he says it’s about not sweating the small stuff, "Life is glorious, so try and be positive and just ask for help."
