Overview

If you have experienced a brain injury, you may notice changes with your memory and thinking. These could include:

• difficulty remembering to do do day-to-day tasks
• needing assistance to plan things for yourself
• having to use strategies to organise things
• needing help getting started with activities in your day-to-day life
• difficulty completing activities in your day-to-day life by yourself.

Thinking about your current supports

You may need supports:

• at home
• when you are in the community
• where you work
• where you learn or study.

Supports may be things you:

• pay for, like equipment or services
• ask for from family and friends.

Supports can help to:

• keep you healthy
• build the skills you need to do more things for yourself
• reach your goals
• make changes to your home so you can keep living there
• make changes to your vehicle so you can keep using it
• receive assistive technology.

Assistive technology can:

• make it easier to do things
• keep you safe.

This might be:

• an aid or piece of equipment
• a system to use
• changes to cars or vans you ride in
• changes to your home.

We call people who provide these supports allied health professionals.

You can find allied health professionals in places like:

• hospitals
• schools
• community health centres.

Allied health does not include care from doctors, nurses or dentists.

The supports you use should:

• keep you safe
• let you have choice and control
• provide information in a way that is right for you
• work with other services if that is what is needed to reach your goals
• let you seek support from other people if you want to - like family, friends or an advocate. An advocate is someone who speaks up for people with disability.

When supports do these things we call them good quality services.

There is a tool you can use to think about:

• the support you currently have
• what support you may need in the future.

You can download the tool below to find out more.

What to do if you have a problem with the support you receive

You have the right to tell people what you think about the support you receive.

If you are not happy with the support you receive, you can:

• give them your feedback
• make a complaint.

Feedback is when you tell someone about a problem so they can try to fix it.

When you make a complaint, you tell someone that something:

• has gone wrong
• is not working well.

Complaints are more serious than feedback.

You can ask someone to help you give feedback or make a complaint, such as:

• your family or other key supporters
• a friend
• a support coordinator
• an advocate.

If there is a problem, it should be fixed.

You should not be made to feel bad because you said something is wrong with a support you use.