Rev. Dr. John Bauman reviews

Brain Injury: When the Call Comes
A Congregational Resource

As a chaplain at the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, I work with patients whose brain was recently injured and with people who come for emotional support months after the injury. In an acute rehab hospital such as Burke, patients and their families are at an early stage of the process before the patient goes either to another facility or home and then in contact with their congregation. This congregational resource provides fourteen short essays that provide very helpful information for congregational clergy as they minister to families and to people with brain injury.

Brain injury can happen at any time to anyone of any faith, Bill Gaventa reminds us. Brain injury is an acute physical injury that has chronic emotional, social, cognitive, psychological and spiritual implications. Each year, 80,000 Americans experience the onset of long term disability following a traumatic brain injury. Rev. David Cotton says that when faced with the choice of death or a life on confinement to a body that may no longer hear or interpret commands from the brain, the pray-er’s choice of what to pray for in both confusing and confounding. What about the quality of life? Medical science’s ability to “fix” the brain is limited and the probability of returning to one’s former life is slim.

Robert Lee, a person who has brain injury, wrote a piece on what it is like to live with a brain injury. He wants people to treat him as an individual, wants people to ask him what he feels, ask him how he feels. He wants people to realize that while his injury may not be visible to other people who look at him, his injury is nonetheless real. People should deal the patient’s total being – not just the medical or the practical.

This resource provides excellent personal journeys written by family members and the importance of faith in the journey. Carolyn Rocchio, a mother of a son with brain injury, provided positive approaches to coping with life after brain injury. She talks times to pray and times to laugh. Nunzio Gubitosa notes that there are times when referrals to pastoral counselors may be helpful, to psychological counseling as well, for persons who may benefit from work with a person with more in depth training.

A social worker at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, Donna Russo, co-founded the Westchester County Chapter of the Brain Injury Association of New York State. Donna kindly offered additional insights to me for congregational clergy who may have a brain injured person in their congregation. Donna noted that often people with brain injury live with a negative stigma. There may be a misconception that people who are brain injured are retarded or developmentally disabled. This is not the case. Donna suggested that in her experience it is often helpful to ask the brain injured person about their thoughts and feelings about the brain injury: “What does it mean to you when the doctor says to you that you have a brain injury?” Then the patient can explore thoughts and feelings about what it means and possible stigmas they face. Instead of primarily focusing on the practical matters, it is important to also ask the person how they feel and think about the brain injury.

Donna also said that often a brain injured person does not think as abstractly as before. They may think more concretely. So the clergy may need to be more active in helping the person with brain injury articulate more abstract spiritual thoughts and feelings. In other words, the ability to have more abstract thoughts and feelings that go with the spiritual life may be damaged, so clergy can more actively suggest and articulate such thoughts and feelings for the person.

Donna noted that sometimes people surrounding the brain injured person become involved in doing for the person, rather than encouraging the person to do as much as they can for themselves. You might provide the phone number but have them make the call. Your congregation can focus on finding practical ways in which the brain injured person can volunteer and actively give back to the community, such as ushering, handing out programs or other vital functions in the congregation.

Finally, Donna noted that brain injured people aren’t likely to go to a support group right away. It may take a year or more before they have tried everything and denial begins to break down. Clergy and people around them may get sucked into focusing on practical support and not focusing on the need to accept the brain injury. Clergy can help by focusing, when appropriate, on the need for acceptance and encourage participation in a brain injury support group.

I highly recommend this resource to chaplains who sometimes work with those who have been diagnosed with a brain injury. It is also an excellent resource that they can inform local clergy about.

Brain Injury Association of New Jersey, Inc., & The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities. Brain Injury: When The Call Comes – A Congregational Resource. 2008, 24 pp.

To obtain copies of Brain Injury: When the Call Comes, download it free or order hard copies for $5.00 at: http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/boggscenter.

Donna Russo, LCSW, is a co-founder of the Westchester Chapter of the Brain Injury Association of New York State and a social worker at the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital.

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