A PIONEERING Coppull-based head injury unit has been hailed a major success after helping dozens of people with serious brain injuries.

Since opening its doors last year, the Community Acquired Brain Injury Rehabilitation Team has come to the rescue of many people needing brain injury treatment.

Dedicated nurses and health specialists at the Springfield Road Clinic help to rehabilitate people after they have been discharged from hospital.

The service is the first of its kind in the area and serves the population of Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust catchment area through referrals from doctors.

Patients aged between 16 and 65 are given specialist rehabilitation treatment including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy.

Each are assigned a special co-ordinator who draws up an individual programme of rehabilitation, aimed at improving the person's independence.

This could include teaching the person various coping strategies to enable them to develop skills to deal with their life-long symptoms.

Since opening, the caring staff have helped people who have suffered a brain injury due to a road or sports accident, a fall or assault.

They have also dealt with people who have suffered from acquired brain injury, which might have been caused through near drowning or poisoning or through a haemorrhage, tumour or serious viral infection.

Clinical director for mental health, for Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust, Dr Ian Leonard, said: "The Trust has been very pleased to develop this new venture with the support of the health authority.

"It aims to, and has succeeded in, co-ordinating a wide range of individual services that people with these injuries need.

"The important emphasis is to improve on how people function and so there quality of life."

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