Every individual with TBI is different, and programs vary
greatly in their goals for people they are serving. What is important
to remember is that each component in a System of Care should be shaping
its services to fit individual needs and not vice versa.
Each service or program should be offering hope and support for the injured individual's maximizing his or her functioning. Each
service should be remembering at all times that the injured person
is still a person, though subjected to trauma. The person typically
remembers who he or she was before injury, and what the person has
become is part of that same human being's life path.
What sort of return of function is likely? Again, this will vary with
each individual and with the menu of services available to him or
her. What is very clear, however, is that when a relevant range of
services has been used, a variety of compensatory strategies and
environmental changes should result — to help the injured individual
function as fully as possible.
This can happen only when programs define "the need" as one of working
toward the goals defined by the individual with TBI -- they
empower the individual and nurture his or her growth and responsibility
for self. This also results only when "the solution" is seen as residing
in both the individual who has been injured and in the social
and physical environment.
