It is estimated that greater than a single million adults inside the UK are at present living with all the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Prices of ABI have increased significantly in recent years, with estimated increases over ten years ranging from 33 per cent (Headway, 2014b) to 95 per cent (HSCIC, 2012). This enhance is on account of several different components which includes enhanced emergency response following injury (Powell, 2004); more cyclists interacting with heavier targeted traffic flow; improved participation in hazardous sports; and larger numbers of pretty old people within the population. As outlined by Nice (2014), by far the most frequent causes of ABI inside the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road website traffic accidents (circa 25 per cent), even though the latter category accounts for any disproportionate quantity of extra extreme brain injuries; other causes of ABI consist of sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is extra typical amongst men than women and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and over eighty (Good, 2014). International information show similar patterns. For instance, within the USA, the Centre for Illness Manage estimates that ABI affects 1.7 million Americans every year; children aged from birth to four, older teenagers and adults aged over sixty-five possess the highest rates of ABI, with men extra susceptible than girls across all age ranges (CDC, undated, Traumatic Brain Injury inside the XAV-939 biological activity United states: Truth Sheet, offered on the net at www.cdc.gov/ traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html, accessed December 2014). There’s also rising awareness and concern within the USA about ABI amongst military personnel (see, e.g. Okie, 2005), with ABI prices reported to exceed onefifth of combatants (Okie, 2005; Terrio et al., 2009). While this article will concentrate on current UK policy and practice, the challenges which it highlights are relevant to several national contexts.Acquired Brain Injury, Social Work and PersonalisationIf the causes of ABI are wide-ranging and unevenly distributed across age and gender, the impacts of ABI are similarly diverse. Some people make a very good recovery from their brain injury, whilst others are left with important ongoing difficulties. Moreover, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury is not a reliable indicator of long-term problems’. The prospective impacts of ABI are effectively described both in (non-social function) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in private accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). Having said that, offered the restricted focus to ABI in social operate literature, it’s worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing some of the popular after-effects: physical troubles, cognitive difficulties, impairment of executive functioning, changes to 
a person’s behaviour and adjustments to emotional regulation and `personality’. For many men and women with ABI, there is going to be no physical indicators of impairment, but some may possibly knowledge a array of physical difficulties which includes `loss of co-ordination, muscle rigidity, paralysis, epilepsy, difficulty in speaking, loss of sight, smell or taste, fatigue, and sexual problems’ (Headway, 2014b), with fatigue and headaches becoming specifically popular immediately after cognitive activity. ABI could also lead to cognitive difficulties including challenges with journal.pone.0169185 memory and lowered speed of details processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive aspects of ABI, whilst challenging for the individual concerned, are fairly easy for social workers and other folks to conceptuali.
