Adapting your home and improving your communication environment

After a traumatic brain injury, many of the difficulties mentioned in previous sections will mean making adaptations to your home environment to help you communicate and manage your everyday living tasks. Treatment, rehabilitation and recovery may be slow, but using simple things like using calendars and putting post-it notes on the fridge to remind you of appointments, or making sure there is no background noise when you communicate.

Other people in your home can also help you by using better communication skills themselves such as only talking to you face to face, not talking too fast, and giving you time to respond.

See our online Download Centre for information sheets relating to communication, planning and adapting your environment following brain injury.

The longer term outlook

Your brain will make some spontaneous recovery following a brain injury, but often you will be left with residual or even serious difficulties because of your injury. A big part of rehabilitation will focus on adaptation of your environment and your communication. Through the use of many simple strategies you can facilitate communication and daily cognitive tasks and lead a full, active and independent life.

You can also look at and purchase books relating to brain injury, and communication difficulties by visiting our Online Bookshop.