Acquired Brain Injury Service

The Acquired Brain Injury Service (ABIS) is a team of people with specialist knowledge, skills and experience in rehabilitation following brain injury. We work with people over the age of 16, in the community with an acquired brain injury providing assessment, advice and treatment to help people to achieve as much independence as possible.

How to access this service

Any health or social care professional can refer you. You can also self refer if you meet the referral criteria

Service locations

The Coppice, Carlisle
Bridge Mills, Kendal
Nursing and care homes
Patient’s homes
Patient’s workplace
Community sites

What is a brain injury?

A brain injury is damage to the structure and workings of the brain.

An acquired brain injury may have been caused by an event such as:

Sub-arachnoid haemorrhage
Head trauma e.g. assault or road traffic accident
Infection e.g. encephalitis or meningitis
Lack of oxygen to the brain due to a medical emergency e.g. heart attack

Effects of Brain Injury

Brain injuries can affect physical, cognitive and emotional functions including:

Motor and balance impairment control
Senses - what you see, hear, smell, taste, touch
Eating and drinking
Speech production, language comprehension, conversation and social skills
Thinking skills including concentration, memory, problem solving and reasoning
Personality, emotions and behaviour
Energy systems e.g. cognitive and physical fatigue levels
A brain injury can also affect your roles and relationships with family, friends and work colleagues.

Each person is affected differently depending on the severity, type and place of injury. Some effects can improve, some effects are long lasting. This can be unpredictable at times.

How this service works

We are a specialist team who work together to help you reach your rehabilitation goals. Our team includes:

Case managers
Occupational therapists
Psychologists
Physiotherapists
Speech and language therapists
Rehabilitation assistants

When you’re referred to us, we’ll call you on the phone to ask you some generic questions around risk factors and find out if we’re the right service to help you. If we think we can help you, we will arrange a further appointment for a more detailed discussion around your rehabilitation needs.

Your first face to face appointment could be with any member of our team. During the appointment, we’ll ask you some questions about your circumstances and rehabilitation needs so we can assess how we might be able to support you.

If you’re accepted into the service, you’ll be offered further appointments with the relevant specialists identified from your assessment. During these appointments, we’ll discuss your rehab goals in more detail and come up with a treatment plan to help you reach those goals. Some examples of goals might be:

Returning to work
Returning to driving
Building confidence to go out
Becoming more independent
Adapting to long term injuries or difficulties
Carrying out activities such as cooking, washing and dressing

Following this appointment, you may be referred to other specialists within our team to help you with your rehabilitation. If you need additional support e.g. in your home, a nursing home or elsewhere, the case manager will explore what’s available and find the right help for you