The collapse of the us/them structure in persons with brain dysfunctions

The effectiveness of selected Tai Chi exercises in a program of strategic rehabilitation aimed at improving the self-care skills of patients aroused from prolonged coma after severe TBI

“…The difficult situation faced by every patient with a serious bodily injury becomes even more difficult when, in addition to the functional deficits, the patient has also lost the ability to solve problems or to plan and perform even the simplest activities [4,5,8–10]. As the patients themselves often explain, they must “learn to live all over again” [11–13]. …”

“…using a wheelchair), while others are activities that were mastered long ago (for example, walking and bathing), but now must be performed in completely different circumstances [4,13,14] in relation to the health behaviour, especially therapeutic behaviour, and preventative (rehabilitative) behaviour as well as to the various areas of quality of life [15]. The difficult process of learning takes place at many different times over the weeks and months that follow the TBI, any consequent surgery, hospitalizations, stays in rehabilitation centers, etc.…”

“…This problem constitutes one of the primary factors that significantly lower their quality of life [13,14,16–18]. …”

“…Relatively few works have been written on the subject of the rehabilitation of these patients [13,14,18,19], and even fewer on the improvement of their self-care skills, which form an integral part of their quality of life [19–23]. In general, authors raise the problem of self-care skills by merely asking a rhetorical question: how to best help the patient who, having survived the worst, must now put their life back together again, though they are often disabled and unprepared for this task.…”

“…The performance of even the simplest activities of daily living is often impossible because of chronic pain [20,22,23]. The patients gradually withdraw from social life, which worsens their social dependency [13,18,19]. The family is generally unprepared for the new obligations that have suddenly arisen, and is unable to cope or - very often, unfortunately – unwilling to take on the new challenge, absent, or deceased in the same accident that injured the patient [1,13].…”