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Home » Health Articles » Aiding A Family Member Healing From A Traumatic Brain Injury

Aiding a Family Member Healing from a Traumatic Brain Injury

It has been found that almost half of people who have gotten a traumatic brain injury experience depression. This predicament can have an effect on the victim's daily life in the short term as well as long term. As a family member trying to help the patient, it is difficult to know how to support your loved one in their time of need.

The Family Is A Brain Injury Victim's Greatest Ally

Though it can be frustrating to see the often mind-boggling aftershocks of traumatic brain injury, it is important to be supportive of your brain-injured family member. Not only do they have to deal with the daily effects of TBI, which may include personality changes, memory loss, or difficulty concentrating or working, but they must navigate their own family relationships as well. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that frustration and even a feeling of desperation are common amongst family members of TBI survivors. It is normal and expected to feel confused, hurt, angry, even depressed yourself as you struggle to help a loved one who is suffering from brain injury and its effects.

It is essential that a victim of a TBI have a solid family support system even though dealing with the TBI is frustrating. Once a brain injured patient is released from intensive medical care, the family becomes his or her primary support system and often takes on medical care roles. Studies have shown that an adaptable family structure is vital to good recovery from traumatic brain injury. This implies that the family members must acknowledge the fact that a change is unavoidable and that they must change their daily routines to meet the realities of a brain injury victim. This also means a challenging coming-to-terms with the personality changes, isolation or embarrassment that may be experienced by a brain-damaged family member. As the family member of a TBI survivor, you may sometimes feel powerless to help your loved one. The reality is that your support can be vital to your relative's quality of life and continued recovery. Speak with your family member's medical care providers, if possible, to find out how you can be involved in medical care.

Caring For A Relative With Brain Damage: Make Sure You Have Support

Though it is important to show up for your brain-injured family member, recognize your own need for support and care. It may help you to join a support group or seek counseling as you deal with the inevitable family changes that accompany brain injury. The internet can also be a good resource for the family struggling to find support for TBI: chat group and online message boards can be comforting and educational as you attain more knowledge about your new role in your family member's life and how to adjust to this space. It may feel unneeded to find support for yourself; after all, you're not the family member who is directly suffering from TBI. But in order to be an effective caretaker for your brain-damaged loved one, it is vital that you yourself feel equipped to deal with daily life and approach your family member with a positive, loving and tolerant attitude. A place to discharge anger and annoyance or a group of knowledgeable friends can help bridge the difference from daily frustration to a feeling of optimism.

Families Are Effective Brain Injury Advocates

Feeling as if your efforts to help your brain-injured loved one aren't working? Try acting as an advocate on their behalf. With the cognitive changes that come with TBI, it is easy for traumatic brain injury victims to fall victim to those who do not respect their rights or take their medical responsibilities seriously. Luckily, family members are extremely effective advocates for brain-injured patients. You can help your loved one document their medical care, weigh important medical decisions and navigate the often confusing terrain of insurance companies, doctors and social services. An educated and positive attitude is often helpful as you seek to achieve your advocacy goals for your brain-injured loved one.

Sometimes it is necessary to enlist the help of an experienced traumatic brain injury attorney as you seek to make sense of a traumatic brain injury. An effective brain injury lawyer can join forces with a family to ensure a positive outcome and can act on your family's behalf as you seek dignified treatment or even monetary damages to cover medical expenses, vocational rehabilitation or future medical care. Together, your attorney and your family members can form an effective system of support for the survivor of a traumatic brain injury, ensuring that they will continue to participate in and contribute to a happy family for years to come.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Rolling your 401k: Contributory IRA vs. Rollover IRA

In an ideal world you would start your working career with a great company in your early 20s, steadily climb the corporate ladder, retire at age 65, and draw a sufficient income from your accumulated 401k account to live happily ever after.

Unfortunately, that's not how the real world works. If you are like most people, you will change careers, or at least companies, several times. Each time, you'll be faced with the question of what to do with your accumulated 401k benefits.

You will likely have a few choices: keep your 401k with your old employer (sometimes possible), roll the proceeds into your new employer's 401k plan, or put them directly into a self-directed IRA at a brokerage firm of your choice.

Since leaving your 401k with your ex-employer has no benefits whatsoever and most employers will prefer you transfer out anyway, that leaves only the last two as viable options:

1. Roll your 401k proceeds into the new employer's 401k plan of (if allowed)

This is the most painless solution and the one that does not require much decision making. While this is certainly acceptable, there is a bigger picture.

The ultimate goal of having a 401k plan is to provide you with a comfortable retirement. To accomplish this you really need a wide variety of investment choices and the opportunity to move among them in response to market variations.

Most 401ks are limited to maybe 15 mutual fund choices which rarely change, even if market behavior dictates they should. Additionally, the canned advice provided through plan sponsors is generally not terribly useful.

The only benefit to this type of rollover is that if your plan has a loan provision, you'll be able to borrow funds easily.

2. Roll your 401k proceeds into a self directed IRA

This is the preferable solution for most people, and with it you again have two choices: roll your 401k into a "Contributory" or a "Rollover" IRA.

Contributory IRA:

Once you roll your proceeds into this type of IRA, you may still contribute annually if you qualify (check with your accountant). However, the 401k portion can no longer be rolled back into another 401k with a new employer, should you ever want to do that. So you eliminate the possibility of using the loan provision with those funds. While it is possible to borrow against an IRA, it's more limited than borrowing against an employer 401k. Check with your tax preparer for details.

Rollover IRA:

This type of IRA allows you the most flexibility. You may roll the proceeds back into a 401k plan if you want to utilize a loan provision. However, for tax reasons you should not make annual contributions to this IRA. If making annual contributions becomes important to you, simply open another contributory IRA.

Since Rollover IRAs are usually set up at a brokerage firm, you'll have access to their entire universe of mutual funds. With this type of IRA, you can also employ an independent investment advisor to manage the account for you. (Yes there is a cost for that, but an effective advisor will more than make up for that in greater returns than you would get without him or her.)

Most of my clients have found that the investment results we've obtained with their personal IRAs were far superior to those yielded by their employer 401k plans or their personal investing efforts. This has been mainly due to a combination of better choices and a methodical approach to investing which has kept my clients in the market during good times and out of it altogether during severe declines.

Bottom line: Rollover IRAs offer opportunities to maximize benefits and provide flexibility not usually available with employer 401k plans.