A University of Plymouth academic has contributed to a new report which found that investing in specialist rehabilitation services could save the NHS and social services nearly £20 billion per year in acute care, longer term and social care costs.
The Right to Rehab report, commissioned by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Acquired Brain Injury and charity UKABIF (the UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum), considers the economic impact of acquired brain injuries (ABI) including traumatic brain injuries, stroke and brain tumours.
It estimated the impact to the economy - including lost productivity, NHS care and the cost of benefits - totals £43bn per year, though the true figure is likely to be higher as limited data is available on the impact on mental health, addiction and homelessness services.
Those costs include a £20bn impact on the NHS and social care, £21.5bn in lost productivity to the economy, and £1.5bn in costs to education and the criminal justice system. In addition, the Department for Work and Pensions is estimated to spend £1.9bn annually on benefits for those with acquired brain injuries.
Dr Alyson Norman, Associate Professor in Psychology based at the University of Plymouth, specialises in studies of brain injuries and visible differences. She is a trustee of UKABIF and a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group, and has a personal connection to the issue as her brother Dave took his own life after a series of brain injuries.
A Safeguarding Adults Review into his case uncovered a pattern of injuries from childhood which had been seen as "mild" at the time, including a road accident at age three and a cricket injury aged 14. These had helped lead him to a spiral of addiction, risky behaviour and homelessness.
Alyson remembers the moment that the chair of the review into his death came to talk to them as a family, and disclosed what she had found in Dave's medical records.
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