Rehab4Life was conceived out of an absolute feeling of helplessness, as a lawyer, whilst acting on behalf of a seriously brain-injured young lady following a road traffic accident. She was medically stabilised following intensive care at her local hospital and was then discharged home to her family. You only have to read our book to know and understand the difficulties she and her family faced in the coming months and years.
The insurance company on the other side denied liability. There was little or no follow up by the medical and therapy professionals in the form of meaningful rehabilitation.
I could not refer her for private rehabilitation because the cost was prohibitive. She therefore had to make do with what the NHS could do for her, which was precious little I regret to say. She suffered badly. Her productiveness as a human being was marred by the serious difficulties she still encounters because of a lack of any proper rehabilitation. She eventually won her case, but only years later. Money eventually became available to provide rehabilitation but the damage has been done and any future improvement is sadly years too late. She will improve but not to the extent she would have done.
I never want to be in this situation again and I never want a client to be in this situation again. I became determined to do something about it. The Rehab4Life Scheme is the result. It is an excellent solution to the problems faced by brain injury victims who are entitled to make a claim for compensation for their injuries. Sadly, we cannot help victims under the Scheme who are not entitled to make a claim.
We want Rehab4Life to be the start of a sea change of attitude towards this “silent epidemic” – this “invisible injury”. Consequently, we intend to monitor all clients who avail themselves of the Scheme and ultimately, at some point in the future, produce a dossier of evidence to illustrate to the powers that be that the current system is just not good enough and that much more needs to be done to provide optimal rehabilitation for the benefit of all victims.
Our pledge is that we will do everything in our power to challenge the present system in order to try to bring about change, to elevate brain injury rehabilitation at all levels to a more meaningful and effective service, to make it a priority at NHS level and to make it better for all victims. We have set up the Rehab4Life Charitable Trust, with this in mind. Read this blog so that you can keep up to date with our charity's efforts and the responses of those in authority.