This Sunday, 15th May, Louis Theroux’s latest documentary, “A Different Brain” will be on BBC 2 at 9pm.
Louis takes a look at the issues that some of the estimated one million people in the UK living with the long-term effects of a brain injury have to deal with.
Louis spends time with staff and service users at the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust, one of the UK’s largest providers of neuro-behavioural rehabilitation, in an effort to understand how individuals and their families come to terms with this life-changing condition.
The documentary explores what is often called a ‘hidden disability’ because those affected can show little physical signs of change, individuals with acquired brain injury face enormous cognitive, behavioural and personality challenges. Those affected are left to reconstruct who they are – from relearning the basics of walking, talking and eating to redeveloping complex personality and behavioural traits, often in the shadow of who they once were. Family members are often caught between grieving for the loved one they have lost and learning to love the person they are now.