10 - Working with families in neuropsychological rehabilitation

Summary

Introduction

When you read the title of this chapter, who might you have in mind as the subject of the text? Who might be included in your idea of ‘family’ … spouses, non-married partners, parents, siblings, or children? Could the person with acquired brain injury (ABI) be in your family? Would you be expecting them to be involved in all family conversations or for there to be some separation of individual neuro-rehabilitation and relatives-focused intervention? Finally, for whom do you delineate your service provision boundaries within your core remit as a neuropsychological rehabilitation service, be this in an ideal situation or in reality?

Questions of this type have influenced the development of a particular perspective in family work, and the development of systematic involvement of families and carers as a core component of the Oliver Zangwill Centre (OZC) neuropsychological rehabilitation programme (see Appendix 10.1). Work with professional carers who are not family members is not a focus of this chapter, although many of the ideas discussed will have some relevance for such work. An aim central to this chapter's perspective is the facilitation of helpful conversations between configurations of family members and those connected with them, organized in particular relationships following ABI (including relatives, the person with ABI, and of course services).

A context is established for this approach through a brief summary of the dominant family needs following ABI, prioritizing family work in neuropsychological rehabilitation. This is then followed by reflection on complexities in the relationships concerned.