Carers to visit new brain clinic

Brain injury can have profound implications

Carers of people with brain injuries are getting the opportunity to visit the site of Northern Ireland's first purpose-built brain injury clinic.

The £8.5m Regional Acquired Brain Injury Unit is under construction at Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast.

Some 3,500 people are diagnosed with brain injuries in NI each year.

Brain injury patients are currently treated on a number of sites, including Forster Green Hospital and the Joss Cardwell Centre in east Belfast.

Families have been campaigning for a dedicated treatment unit for some time.

The visit to the new centre on Monday will mark the beginning of Brain Injury Awareness Week, from 14-20 March.

I started working with Dr McCann and Headway in Belfast - it is a fantastic opportunity to give something back Brendan McKeever

It is part of a national campaign to raise issues relevant to brain injuries.

Brendan McKeever, chair of the patients group Headway, said it was "a wonderful development".

"Headway's mission statement is to provide understanding of all aspects of brain injury and to provide information, support and services to people with brain injuries, and their families and carers," he said.

"About four years ago I suffered a brian haemorrhage and was lucky to survive that.

"I started working with Dr McCann and Headway in Belfast - it is a fantastic opportunity to give something back."

The consultant in charge of the project, Dr John McCann, said once the trauma team had dealt with the situation, rehabilitation had to be carried out in a co-ordinated manner. "It is that, we feel, will be best done in a single unit within the site," he said.