It is estimated that more than a single million adults within the UK are currently living together with the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Rates of ABI have increased significantly in recent years, with estimated increases more than ten years ranging from 33 per cent (Headway, 2014b) to 95 per cent (HSCIC, 2012). This boost is as a result of several different aspects which includes enhanced emergency response following injury (Powell, 2004); extra cyclists interacting with heavier website traffic flow; elevated participation in unsafe sports; and larger numbers of very old people today in the population. In accordance with Good (2014), probably the most common causes of ABI in the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road targeted traffic accidents (circa 25 per cent), although the latter category accounts for a disproportionate number of additional severe brain injuries; other causes of ABI consist of sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is a lot more typical amongst guys than girls and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and over eighty (Good, 2014). International data show equivalent patterns. By way of example, inside the USA, the Centre for Disease Manage estimates that ABI impacts 1.7 million Americans every single year; young children aged from birth to four, older teenagers and adults aged more than sixty-five have the highest prices of ABI, with males much more susceptible than girls across all age ranges (CDC, undated, Traumatic Brain Injury inside the United states: Truth Sheet, out there on-line at www.cdc.gov/ traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html, accessed December 2014). There is also rising awareness and concern in the USA about ABI amongst military personnel (see, e.g. Okie, 2005), with ABI prices reported to exceed onefifth of combatants (Okie, 2005; Terrio et al., 2009). While this article will focus on present UK policy and practice, the issues which it highlights are relevant to several national contexts.Acquired Brain Injury, Social Work and PersonalisationIf the causes of ABI are wide-ranging and unevenly distributed across age and gender, the impacts of ABI are similarly diverse. Many people make a fantastic recovery from their brain injury, whilst other folks are left with significant ongoing troubles. Moreover, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury will not be a dependable indicator of long-term problems’. The potential impacts of ABI are nicely described both in (non-social function) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in individual accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). Having said that, given the limited interest to ABI in social perform literature, it is actually worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing a number of the frequent after-effects: physical issues, cognitive difficulties, impairment of executive functioning, changes to a person’s behaviour and adjustments to emotional regulation and `personality’. For a lot of men and women with ABI, there will be no physical indicators of impairment, but some may experience a range of physical difficulties like `loss of co-ordination, muscle rigidity, paralysis, Tirabrutinib chemical information epilepsy, difficulty in speaking, loss of sight, smell or taste, fatigue, and sexual problems’ (Headway, 2014b), with fatigue and headaches getting particularly frequent just after cognitive activity. ABI may perhaps also trigger cognitive difficulties such as complications with journal.pone.0169185 memory and decreased speed 
of information and facts processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive elements of ABI, while challenging for the person concerned, are fairly easy for social workers and other folks to conceptuali.