Sir, - Thank you for your excellent and timely articles on the consequences of our national indifference to the need for careful and responsible driving, and the ongoing failure of our governments to take effective action. You have highlighted well the appalling consequences for so many lives.
I would like to raise also the failure of the State to take on the horrendous consequences of brain injuries, very many of which result from road accidents. Very significant medical advances over the past decade mean that many more brain-injured people survive their accidents with serious brain impairment. It seems, however, that life itself is maintained without acceptance of the need to develop and greatly improve the levels of after-care available to the injured and their families.
It is urgent and vital that facilities and assistance are made available to ensure the best possible ongoing life for the injured and their carers. It is simply not acceptable that the State should require that the distressed families involved must take on the entire burden themselves for the rest of their lives, with minimal and unco-ordinated input from State services, and the constant worry about the day when they can no longer cope.
When brain-injured patients are finally discharged from the excellent recovery facilities of Beaumont and the rehabilitation hospitals, there are no entitlements to (nor availability of) the necessary ongoing treatments and teaching recommended to develop or maintain their ability to live out their lives to the fullest extent possible. The traumatised families must even hunt out the various aids and concessions that do exist to mitigate the enormous physical and financial burdens that have been added to their overwhelming sense of loss.
An integrated service that supports those affected by brain injury from the moment the trauma occurs, and for the rest of their lives, is a fundamental right. In other countries a case manager familiarises him/herself with the specialist reports, co-ordinates the ongoing treatments/facilities recommended, and advises the families accordingly.
A caring responsible Government must accept the rights of those injured to such services, and undertake their provision. - Yours, etc.,
Patrick Pierce, (BR═, the Acquired Brain Injury Advocacy Association), Falls Road, Shankill, Co Dublin.