Brain injury can happen to anyone and often happens suddenly. Our brains can be injured in many different ways, through illness, infections, stroke or physical trauma. How people are affected by an injury depends on which part of their brain is damaged and the extent of that damage. This ranges from short term difficulties to life-changing acquired disabilities. An acquired brain injury goes hand in hand with making sense of a new you, of the things you find difficult, the things you can’t do any more and the help you’ll need to cope and adjust. For many people with a brain injury this is a time of grief for the loss of the life that they were hoping for, of career, of earnings and of financial security. Families, partners, children are profoundly affected too and relationships are often strained as people take on caring roles they never expected. Although so many of our clients receive excellent support from the NHS immediately after their brain injury, the journey of recovery and adaptation is a long one for most people and carries on long after they leave hospital. It often means adapting to lifelong changes in what they can do and how they live. Health and social care services are able to offer some support at home but much of the work of coping, recovering and making the best of a very different way of life is done by the person with the brain injury and those close to them. This is where Headway Devon can step in, with practical support with day-to-day living, with emotional support, with help to maximise brain recovery and with support for carers, who can often feel forgotten or overwhelmed. We can support you through: Centre support in Exeter, Honiton or Newton Abbot. Enabling support at home across Devon. Peer support art therapeutic group for people experiencing communication difficulties after brain injury. A closed Facebook group for unpaid carer peer support.