Gloucestershire Brain Injury Team Outpatient Services
This page describes the outpatient services provided for Gloucestershire patients by the Brain Injury Team.
Gloucestershire Brain Injury Team
The Gloucestershire Brain Injury Team helps people who have had a brain injury to achieve their best possible recovery and manage any ongoing difficulties with activities of daily living.
The team consists of:
- Team Manager
- Clinical Psychologists
- Occupational Therapists
- Physiotherapists
- Speech and Language Therapists
- Therapy technicians
- Administration staff
The team work across Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospitals and cover in-patients, outpatients and community referrals; this is a countywide service.
Patients may see just one member, some, or all of the team depending on their needs.
The Gloucestershire Brain Injury Team have strong links with the independent charity Headway Gloucestershire, which supports the needs of survivors of brain injury, their families and carers in the county.
Early discharge programme
Some in-patients who are currently receiving specialist brain injury input either in hospital or in a brain injury unit may be considered to benefit from high intensity, continued therapy within their home environment or other residential setting to allow them to be discharged early.
This is known as the early discharge programme. The programme consists of up to 12 weeks of home/residential based intensive specialist therapy divided into 6 week blocks.
The level of therapy input in the first 6 weeks will usually be higher than in the second block.
A review meeting with the patient and their family will take place at the end of the first 6 weeks in which progress with mutually agreed aims or targets in therapy (known as goals) will be reviewed.
After the 12 weeks of the intensive therapy programme, less frequent outpatient therapy may be offered as required.
Outpatient therapy
The patient’s therapy needs will be assessed by a member of the therapy team. Rehabilitation goals will be discussed together and a therapy plan will be agreed with the patient. Patients are encouraged to identify their own short and long term goals with guidance from the therapist.
Patients often have therapy followed by a review to talk about how it went and how it can be changed to best suit them.
Further goals may also be agreed with the patient. At this stage, it is often helpful for the patient to practice strategies in ‘real-life’ situations.
Having a break from therapy sessions can be helpful.
The patient can practise and get used to what they have learnt. If there is a change in a patient’s circumstances after they have been discharged, or if they need a review, they can be re-referred to the service.
The team are brain injury specialists and if patients have other needs they may be referred on to other services.
Confidentiality
We will share information within the team and with the patient’s doctor or referrer but will not disclose any confidential information to other agencies without the patient’s consent.
Waiting times
Waiting times for outpatient therapy can vary dependent on how many other patients are waiting.
Therapy staff cover a wide area, with a large number of patients needing to be seen. This limits the available time for each person so it is important that patients work on their goals between appointments.
Patients may be referred to group sessions if therapists feel this would be beneficial.
Contact information
Gloucestershire Brain Injury Team
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Tel: 0300 422 5139 (answerphone)
Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm
Email: ghn-tr.brain.injury@nhs.net
The answerphone is checked at regular intervals during the working day.