| The Rehab4Life Charitable Trust has been set up entirely independent of the Rehab4Life Scheme and Rehab4Life LLP, the owners and managers of the scheme. The Trust has a completely different purpose, as explained below.
The driving force behind the conception, design and life force of Rehab4Life was and is the desire to ensure that victims of brain injury receive optimal rehabilitation.
The World Health Organisation’s definition of rehabilitation is:
"The use of all means aimed at reducing the impact of disabling and handicapping conditions and at enabling people with disabilities to achieve optimal social integration."
The United Nations, World Health Organisation, the European Union and the European Year for People with Disabilities 2003 fully support the view that rehabilitation is a basic and fundamental human right.
In the United Kingdom optimally effective rehabilitation particularly in the field of acquired injury, is a “post code lottery.”
Post acute acquired brain injury and neurobehavioural rehabilitation facilities within the UK are precious few in number. The majority of the UK is very poorly served at both NHS post acute and neurobehavioural levels. The private sector does provide good back up but the combined number of NHS and private beds available is unlikely to amount to a fraction of that required if every person with a brain injury were to receive optimal rehabilitation.
This needs to change. The NHS needs to prioritise and optimise brain injury rehabilitation treatment and needs to invest heavily in it at both hospital and community levels. Victims should not be treated differently just because of their geographical location and should not have to depend upon whether they have a claim in order to be able to afford private treatment.
Professor Mike Barnes, Consultant in Neurorehabilitation, who wrote the foreword to our book “Coping with Traumatic brain injury in the aftermath,” is a great proponent of home based multi-disciplinary rehabilitation, something that does not exist at all in the UK. He is appalled that neurorehabilitation facilities in some Third World countries, such as Cuba, are actually better than those in the UK.
The Rehab4Life Charitable Trust is now established. It’s aims and objectives include bringing the “silent epidemic” to the fore in the minds of society by putting as much pressure on the powers that be as possible to realize, understand and act upon the very simple and accepted principle, set out in the following quote:
“Rehabilitation is effective in reducing the burden of disability and in enhancing opportunities for people with disabilities. Its cost is frequently no greater than would have otherwise been incurred by health services, had such services not been provided. Preventing the complications of immobility, brain injury and pain (for which there is good evidence) leads to many benefits both qualitatively for the individual and quantitatively in terms of the financial implications.” (The European Board of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, commenting upon the financial implications to society of appropriate rehabilitation care)
So, we will be getting on with this and keeping you advised of progress in a blog from time to time so watch this space. You will be able to send your own contributions to the blog when we improve our service and generally get better at things.
In the meantime if you have anything you want to contribute, facts, opinions on what we are trying to do or about your own experiences or about anything to do with acquired brain injury please feel free to email us. We may not be able to respond immediately (so please forgive us) but your contribution will be considered and kept on file and we will respond in due course.
Watch this space.
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