Brain Injury Rehabilitation
At a Glance
- Brain injury rehabilitation helps people recover from physical, cognitive, or emotional impairment after damage to the brain.
- This neuro-rehabilitation can be inpatient or outpatient. While both require a commitment to therapy, inpatient care involves a hospital stay, and outpatient care does not.
Overview
Brain injury rehabilitation, a type of neuro-rehabilitation, is a structured and deliberate recovery process designed to help people reclaim physical, cognitive, and emotional function after brain damage.
Neuro-rehabilitation generally begins once a person is medically stable and incorporates a team of specialists who work together to help restore lost abilities, adapt to new limitations, and build new skills. The guidance and support of these professionals are crucial to the brain injury rehabilitation process, and can include neurologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and neuropsychologists. Brain injury rehabilitation can take place in a hospital (inpatient neuro-rehabilitation), outpatient centers (outpatient neuro-rehabilitation), or at home (home and community-based programs). Regardless of location, doctors tailor neuro-rehabilitation to a person’s specific injury, symptoms, and recovery goals.
Here at Barrow Neurological Institute, our Neuro-Rehabilitation Center is proud to be one of the leading clinics for brain injury rehabilitation in the Southwestern U.S. In fact, U.S. News and World Report has consistently named us one of the Best Hospitals for Rehabilitation. Whether it’s injury prevention or maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle after brain injury rehabilitation, we’re committed to helping patients through every step of their experience.
Did you know?
It’s never too late to start a neuro-rehabilitation program—many people can enjoy meaningful improvement and regain function months or even years after an initial injury.
What defines a brain injury?
A brain injury is any damage to the brain’s structure or function that disrupts how it usually works. This damage can stem from an external force, like a blow to the head, an internal process leading to a lack of oxygen, bleeding in the brain, inflammation, an infection, or a combination of these injuries.
A brain injury can impact your cognitive abilities, memory, physical function, speech, vision, emotions, judgment, and behavior. Even a seemingly minor injury can have significant effects, depending on which part of the brain is affected and how severe the damage is.
Doctors generally classify brain injuries into two types: traumatic brain injury (TBI) and acquired brain injury. An acquired brain injury results from internal factors that damage brain tissue, rather than an external event.
Acquired brain injuries can include:
- Stroke: A blocked artery in an ischemic stroke or a burst blood vessel in a hemorrhagic stroke can lead to a loss of oxygen and brain cell death, affecting brain function.
- Tumor-related brain injury: Pressure or invasion from a brain tumor, benign or malignant, can damage surrounding brain tissue.
- Hemorrhage or hematoma: Internal bleeding in or around the brain can compress and damage brain structures. This can, in turn, injure the brain.
- Anoxic or hypoxic brain injury: Brain injury is a common complication of oxygen deprivation caused by cardiac arrest, suffocation, or drowning.
- Infection: Brain inflammation caused by infections such as meningitis or encephalitis can also damage brain tissue.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can include:
- Concussion: As the most common and mildest form of a TBI, a concussion is caused by rapid, forceful movement of the brain against the skull, triggering chemical and blood flow changes within the brain. These, in turn, temporarily alter its ability to function.
- Contusion: This is a bruise on the brain that often occurs from direct impact, causing localized bleeding and swelling within brain tissue.
- Penetrating injury: When an object like a bullet or shrapnel pierces the skull and directly damages brain tissue, localized and severe damage can occur. The brain can also be injured if there are bone fragments or bleeding from a skull fracture.
- Diffuse axonal injury (DAI): This type of TBI is caused by violent rotation or shaking of the head, damaging nerve fibers, known as axons, across the brain. These injuries can be seen in severe or high-speed cases and often lead to coma.
Inpatient Brain Injury Neuro-Rehabilitation
The Neuro-Rehabilitation Center at Barrow Neurological Institute offers unparalleled care for those with all forms of brain injury.
Our compassionate and experienced neuro-rehabilitation specialists aim to help patients enhance their quality of life by improving skills, maximizing independence, and renewing self-esteem. Therapy services are provided up to seven days a week, for an average of three hours per day, so that each person is able to demonstrate progress toward meeting goals for discharge.
You must meet specific criteria to qualify for neuro-rehabilitation at Barrow. This program does not currently serve individuals who are under the age of 15, medically unstable, ventilator dependent, or unresponsive.
Outpatient Brain Injury Neuro-Rehabilitation
After discharge from an inpatient setting, our team may refer you to one of our outpatient brain injury rehabilitation programs for ongoing treatment.
Programs can include:
- Outpatient Neurological Rehabilitation Program: This program, accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), offers individualized treatment plans, flexible therapy scheduling, and a coordinated team approach to brain injury rehabilitation.
- Center for Transitional Neuro-Rehabilitation (CTN): Barrow Neurological Institute’s Center for Transitional Neuro-Rehabilitation is an intensive day program that helps those 14 and older who have experienced an acquired brain injury gain the skills they need to transition back into school, work, or the community. CTN emphasizes a collaborative approach, where the person actively participates in the process with the guidance, support, and assistance of various professionals.
In addition to our highly specialized centers and programs, we offer aquatic therapy, peer mentoring, and community reintegration programs.
Common Questions
How common are brain injuries?
Researchers estimate that approximately 2.8 million Americans sustain a brain injury each year, and more than 5 million Americans live with a disability related to a past traumatic brain injury (TBI).
The leading cause of traumatic brain injuries is a fall, which disproportionately affects the youngest and oldest age groups. Adults 65 and older have the highest rates of brain injury-related hospitalizations and deaths, and men are about twice as likely as women to sustain a brain injury and have more severe outcomes.
Am I a good candidate for neuro-rehabilitation?
Doctors will consider several medical, cognitive, and functional factors to determine whether you’re a good candidate for neuro-rehabilitation after a brain injury.
Generally speaking, the criteria for brain injury rehabilitation include:
- Being medically stable: You must be medically stable to participate in neuro-rehabilitation, meaning your vital signs are steady, and you don’t have any life-threatening complications.
- Displaying cognitive and behavioral readiness: You can attend, cooperate, and demonstrate basic awareness or learning capacity. Conversely, if you display significant confusion, agitation, or severe psychiatric symptoms, your care team will have to stabilize you first.
- Demonstrating an ability to participate: This means you can tolerate some level of activity and follow simple commands—even nonverbally—allowing for engagement in the process.
- Establishing a potential for improvement: Based on your neurological exams and imaging studies, there’s evidence or expectation that neuro-rehabilitation can improve your cognitive, physical, or communication capacities.
- Holding functional goals: Your goals for brain injury rehabilitation should be clear and realistic—for example, improving your mobility, speech, memory, or self-care—and align with the services provided during neuro-rehabilitation.
- Ability to be motivated and engaged: By showing willingness to learn, motivation, and potential capacity to participate in neuro-rehabilitation, you’re foreshadowing a great predictor of success.
- Having necessary family or caregiver support: A supportive environment will improve your outcomes, especially in terms of emotional recovery and the ongoing therapies that will require at-home support.
Considering these guidelines can help your healthcare team determine whether you’ll benefit from brain injury rehabilitation.
What kind of outcomes can I expect after brain injury rehabilitation?
Because every brain injury is different, the outcomes that follow brain injury rehabilitation will vary. Instead of thinking about outcomes as an all-or-nothing, it’s more accurate to think of them as existing on a spectrum.
This spectrum can include:
- Improved physical function: Through brain injury rehabilitation, you can enhance your strength, balance, coordination, and mobility, ultimately transitioning from needing assistance to walking with a device, or from a device to walking independently.
- Better control of daily activities: With an emphasis on occupational therapy, you can make strides in your ability to get dressed, bathe, eat, cook, and manage household tasks, as well as return to your school or work routines.
- Clearer communication: If your speech or language was affected by your brain injury, a speech–language pathologist will work with you on understanding language, word-finding, reading, writing, speech clarity, and socially effective communication.
- Enhanced cognitive gains: While these improvements rarely occur overnight, changes to memory strategies, problem-solving, planning, and emotional regulation tend to be gradual and are supported by compensatory tools learned in neuro-rehabilitation.
- Reduced pain or discomfort: Neuro-rehabilitation following a brain injury often includes strategies that calm the nervous system’s alarm mode, especially when headaches, muscle tension, or postural issues are a part of recovery. This, in turn, will reduce your overall pain and discomfort as your brain recovers.
- Evolved emotional coping: A brain injury can affect your mood, identity, and confidence. Conversely, counseling and emotional support can help you process these changes, reduce your anxiety, and most importantly, build resilience.
After brain injury rehabilitation, the ability to reconnect with people, hobbies, school, work, and independence is often the most meaningful outcome. Younger patients usually recover more fully due to greater brain plasticity. At the same time, older adults may experience a slower or less complete recovery. That said, ongoing physical, occupational, and cognitive therapy can truly enhance long-term function and quality of life. With steady work and support, the nervous system can adapt, learn new pathways, and discover new ways to engage with life.
What can I do to prevent a brain injury?
While not every brain injury is avoidable, much of the risk is related to situations we can individually manage or protect against.
Prevention tips for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) include:
- Falls: As the leading cause of brain injuries—especially for those over 65—fall prevention can be as simple as installing grab bars, non-slip mats, and better lighting at home. It’s also encouraged through regular strength and balance exercises, checking vision regularly, and reviewing medications that may affect balance.
- Wearing helmets and safety gear: Helmets protect the skull and brain from direct impact. Activities that call for helmets include biking, skateboarding, riding motorcycles and ATVs, contact sports like football, hockey, lacrosse, skiing or snowboarding, and horseback riding.
- Drive and ride smart: Motor vehicle crashes are a significant cause of TBIs, but many are preventable. Always wear a seatbelt, even in the back seat, and use child safety seats correctly. Ensure you follow posted speed limits and avoid distracted driving, such as texting while driving. Lastly, never drive under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or while extremely tired.
- Protect kids in sports: Sports-related brain injuries are especially common in football, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, and boxing. To reduce the risk of TBI, make sure your kids wear properly fitting helmets, report and rest after a suspected concussion, and abide by a return-to-play protocol after a head injury.
- Manage risk in young children: Young children are especially prone to falls. For babies and toddlers, it’s recommended that you use baby gates, window guards, and soft flooring, never leave them unattended on high surfaces, and always use properly-installed car seats.
- Practice caution around high-risk work or environments: Construction, military service, and industrial jobs carry a higher risk of brain injuries, requiring the consistent use of protective headgear and adherence to safety protocols. Ensuring that workplace safety training is up-to-date is also an important preventive measure.
Meanwhile, acquired brain injuries caused by stroke also have some degree of preventability through lifestyle and behavior modification and control of healthcare conditions like diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol.
If you have any of the following risk factors, please speak with your trusted healthcare professional to come up with a plan to reduce your risk:
- High blood pressure, specifically systolic blood pressure greater than 140 mm/Hg and diastolic blood pressure greater than 85 mm/HG.
- Smoking
- Excessive alcohol consumption
- Physical inactivity and obesity
- Diabetes
- Hypercholesterolemia, or high levels of “bad cholesterol” (LDL)
Resources
American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
