Safety Awareness / Risk Taking
| Physical | Communication | Cognitive | Behavioural / Emotional |
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Following a brain injury, many people experience impairments in their executive functioning, affecting their sense of judgment and insight. Lack of insight can result in a person with a brain injury placing themselves in situations of danger which they do not perceive. They may not understand another person’s ill intentions or even potential for hostility towards them.
When the ability to make good choices is impaired, some people are particularly susceptible to the influence of friends and family. For people with a brain injury, peer influence can be a major factor that can have both positive and negative effects.
A person with a brain injury may lose contact with their friends pre-injury and then seek new relationships resulting in them being under more pressure to ‘fit in’.
Substance or alcohol abuse can be a potential problem for individuals following a brain injury. Some people may turn to alcohol or drugs to cope with pain, depression, or anxiety, but often these substances only make the problems worse and interfere with a person’s recovery.
Risk taking does seem to naturally improve with time post-injury as part of the ongoing recovery process. Rehabilitation can be undertaken to help a person with a brain injury to identify risks and dangers and develop strategies to mitigate or deal with them.
