It really is estimated that more than a single million adults inside the UK are currently living using the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Rates of ABI have improved significantly in current years, with estimated increases over ten years ranging from 33 per cent (Headway, 2014b) to 95 per cent (HSCIC, 2012). This boost is due to a number of variables like enhanced emergency response following injury (Powell, 2004); more cyclists interacting with heavier traffic flow; increased participation in dangerous sports; and larger numbers of pretty old people today in the population. In accordance with Good (2014), by far the most typical causes of ABI in the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road traffic accidents (circa 25 per 
cent), even though the latter category accounts to get a disproportionate variety of far more serious brain injuries; other causes of ABI consist of sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is extra frequent amongst men than women and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and over eighty (Nice, 2014). International data show similar patterns. One example is, inside the USA, the Centre for Disease Manage estimates that ABI impacts 1.7 million Americans every year; youngsters aged from birth to four, older teenagers and adults aged more than sixty-five have the highest rates of ABI, with men more susceptible than girls across all age ranges (CDC, undated, Traumatic Brain Injury within the United states: Truth Sheet, obtainable on the web at www.cdc.gov/ traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html, accessed December 2014). There is certainly also escalating awareness and concern inside the USA about ABI amongst military personnel (see, e.g. Okie, 2005), with ABI rates reported to exceed onefifth of combatants (Okie, 2005; Terrio et al., 2009). Whilst this short article will concentrate on existing UK policy and practice, the problems which it highlights are relevant to lots of national contexts.Acquired Brain Injury, Social Perform and PersonalisationIf the causes of ABI are wide-ranging and unevenly distributed across age and gender, the impacts of ABI are similarly diverse. A lot of people make an excellent recovery from their brain injury, while other folks are left with significant ongoing troubles. Moreover, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury isn’t a dependable indicator of long-term problems’. The possible impacts of ABI are nicely described both in (non-social work) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in personal accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). On the other hand, given the restricted interest to ABI in social function literature, it really is worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing some of the prevalent after-effects: physical difficulties, cognitive troubles, impairment of executive functioning, adjustments to a person’s behaviour and adjustments to emotional regulation and `personality’. For many persons with ABI, there is going to be no physical indicators of impairment, but some might expertise a array of physical issues such as `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 being specifically frequent just after cognitive activity. ABI may also result in cognitive difficulties including problems with journal.pone.0169185 memory and reduced speed of facts processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive aspects of ABI, whilst challenging for the person concerned, are comparatively easy for social workers and other people to ONO-4059 site conceptuali.