It is estimated that greater than one million adults within the UK are at the moment living with the long-term consequences of brain injuries (Headway, 2014b). Prices of ABI have enhanced significantly in recent years, with estimated increases over ten years ranging from 33 per cent (Headway, 2014b) to 95 per cent (HSCIC, 2012). This boost is because of many different variables such as enhanced emergency response following injury (Powell, 2004); extra cyclists interacting with heavier website traffic flow; elevated participation in hazardous sports; and bigger numbers of very old persons in the population. In accordance with Nice (2014), probably the most prevalent causes of ABI inside the UK are falls (22 ?43 per cent), assaults (30 ?50 per cent) and road targeted traffic accidents (circa 25 per cent), though the latter category accounts for a disproportionate number of more severe brain injuries; other causes of ABI involve sports injuries and domestic violence. Brain injury is additional popular amongst males than women and shows peaks at ages fifteen to thirty and more than eighty (Nice, 2014). International data show similar patterns. For example, within the USA, the Centre for GW0742 molecular weight Disease Handle estimates that ABI affects 1.7 million Americans every year; children aged from birth to four, older teenagers and adults aged over sixty-five have the highest rates of ABI, with males much more susceptible than women across 
all age ranges (CDC, undated, Traumatic Brain Injury inside the Usa: Fact Sheet, readily available 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 current UK policy and practice, the issues which it highlights are relevant to several national contexts.Acquired Brain Injury, Social Function and PersonalisationIf the causes of ABI are wide-ranging and unevenly distributed across age and gender, the impacts of ABI are similarly diverse. A lot of people make a great recovery from their brain injury, while other folks are left with considerable ongoing troubles. Furthermore, as Headway (2014b) cautions, the `initial diagnosis of severity of injury isn’t a reputable indicator of long-term problems’. The prospective impacts of ABI are properly described both in (non-social work) academic literature (e.g. Fleminger and Ponsford, 2005) and in individual accounts (e.g. Crimmins, 2001; Perry, 1986). Having said that, given the restricted attention to ABI in social operate literature, it can be worth 10508619.2011.638589 listing some of the frequent after-effects: physical issues, cognitive issues, impairment of executive functioning, adjustments to a person’s behaviour and modifications to emotional regulation and `personality’. For many individuals with ABI, there are going to be no physical indicators of impairment, but some may experience a selection of physical issues which includes `loss of co-ordination, muscle rigidity, paralysis, epilepsy, difficulty in speaking, loss of sight, smell or taste, fatigue, and sexual problems’ (Headway, 2014b), with fatigue and headaches becoming specifically common just after cognitive activity. ABI may well also trigger cognitive issues for instance issues with journal.pone.0169185 memory and decreased speed of facts processing by the brain. These physical and cognitive elements of ABI, whilst difficult for the individual concerned, are relatively effortless for social workers and other folks to conceptuali.