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Brain injuries generally lead to other disabilities and health complications such as weakness, paralysis, spasticity, or loss of balance. A life care planner will take these associated disabilities into consideration when creating a life care plan, which can help establish the future expenses and injured individual will be facing.
Functional Restrictions
A brain injury may cause function restrictions that will necessitate mobility aids, special therapies, and home modifications for safety and access. A life care plan will evaluate changes in functionality, possible aids that could help improve the injured individual’s quality of life, and the associated cost.
Behavioral Changes
One of the many provisions in a life care plan is an investigation of the significant changes in behavior. Behavioral changes could be caused by increased intracranial pressure, progressive brain atrophy, or stroke. Sometimes regularly-scheduled screening diagnostic imaging can catch these changes before they occur. An experienced life care planner will include provisions for behavioral changes in the plan.
Specialty Care Providers
A life care plan for someone with a brain injury should also identifying a primary care provider with expertise in brain injuries. The plan should reflect that the patient will need regular medical follow-up with this provider, as appropriate to his or her age and condition. Regular visits to a physiatrist or specialty care provider, such as someone who can evaluate speech and language capabilities, may also be necessary depending on the baseline evaluation. A life care plan will identify local providers.
Home Care/Facility Care
One of the major costs in caring for a brain injured person is obtaining the necessary home care required to the evaluee’s traumatic brain injury. The life care considers the extraordinary care required for a brain injury not usually provided by parents of children and adolescents. Adults usually leave their parent’s home at age 18 or 21, and thus home care after this age is provided by home health aides or professional nurses not by family members. One of the most difficult decisions a family can make for their brain injured child or adult is facility placement. All of these circumstances with recommendations are contained in a life care plan. The selection of qualified care givers or the proper facility placement is extremely important as these items make up at about 80% of the life care costs.
Medications
Finally, the brain injury or some if its resulting disabilities may necessitate a variety of medications. Medications can be quite costly. A life care planner will research costs and suppliers for all prescribed and over-the-counter medications that the injured individual is using or is reasonably certain to be needing in the future.
Occupational Assessment Services, Inc. (OAS) has extensive experience creating life care plans for injured plaintiffs in a variety of circumstances. Contact OAS at 800-292-1919 to discuss how we can help with your life care plan.
