Social Disability

One Person's Recovery Journey

This is the story of the struggle by a rehabilitation professional whose experience includes managing a recovery program for people with brain injury who suffers a traumatic brain injury. He learns more about the rehabilitation processes from the patient's perspective and makes a strong recovery only to discover that real barriers exist in regard to returning to intellectual work with that diagnosis which seem to have to do with the perceptions and the attitudes of employers than demonstrated capability. From the hospital social worker who stated, "It's difficult for us to work with with you because you're one of us," to the post-injury employers who suddenly became hostile or dismissive, in spite of successful job performance, it is a daunting cautionary tale of recovery and reintegration from a disability which has been described as being "of epidemic proportions."