Returning to work after a brain injury
October 25, 2010
Posted by:Jo Chapman
Initial appearances (clumsy with impaired balance), speech impediments (sounding drunk) and a tendency to say mildly inappropriate things can count against you at interview.
It is hard to overcome these barriers to employment and much work needs to be done to raise awareness among employers' HR and managers. Applicants could consider telling prospective employers about their injury and sending them information about it. Headway produces a range of brief but informative FactSheets that can be downloaded from their website. Employers could be given a copy of, for example, the Headway FactSheet: "The effects of brain injury" with the job application. Headway also has two FactSheets: "Returning to work after brain injury" and "Returning to work - help and support services" and suggests contacting the local Disability Employment Adviser who can help with job retention and problems at work and might be able to liaise between an job applicant and their prospective employer.