Addressing Brain Injury in Under-resourced Settings ― A Practical Guide to Community-centred Approaches

This practical guide is a global resource aimed at healthcare workers who work with brain injured patients in settings where neuropsychological expertise and rehabilitation services are lacking or under-developed. Covering cross-cultural perspectives, it provides easily digestible information about the brain, including normal functioning, the ways it can be damaged through injury and disease, and basic skills on how to identify neurological difficulties and provide rehabilitation opportunities. It also gives guidance on establishing community projects and training programmes to empower healthcare workers in the provision of basic care, education and support for those with brain injuries.

Ross Balchin is a Clinical Neuropsychologist based at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, and an Honorary Research Associate in the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of Cape Town. Dr Balchin also works with the Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation in New York as an independent contractor. He has formerly held both the National Research Foundation (NRF) NPPD and the Claude Leon Foundation postdoctoral fellowships.

Rudi Coetzer is a Consultant Neuropsychologist, and Head of the North Wales Brain Injury Service, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board NHS Wales. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Clinical Neuropsychology in the School of Psychology, Bangor University. Dr Coetzer is on the British Psychological Society Division of Neuropsychology Specialist Register.

Christian Salas is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist. He is a researcher at the Cognitive and Social Neuroscience Laboratory (Universidad Diego Portales) and Training Teacher at the Dynamic Psychotherapy Unit (J.H. Barak Psychiatric Institute), both in Santiago, Chile.

Jan Webster is an independent Organization Development Consultant in the international charity sector. She founded The ComaCARE Trust in 2005 at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town and served as Director for ten years, during which time she started its HeadsUP! community brain-injury rehabilitation programme. She has successfully promoted public brain awareness through cofounding an official World Design Capital 2014 project called Brainstorm the City. In 2007 Jan became an Ashoka Fellow in recognition of her social entrepreneurship.