Have I got it wrong or is it them? Difficulties in access to specialist brain injury social work services

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to highlight the challenges that case managers face in accessing appropriate statutory services and funding for young brain injured adults.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses aggregate case material, based on two years of case management with young adults with an acquired brain injury.FindingsThere is a need for separate, dedicated acquired brain injury services within local authority adult services. There should be a greater emphasis on assessments of functioning and decision‐specific mental capacity for clients with acquired brain injury rather than simplistic assumptions of capacity. Health and social welfare professionals in this field need a knowledge of the law related to benefits disregard and mental capacity, including recent case law. The statutory complaints system can provide redress where statutory services have been wrongly withheld.Practical implicationsCase managers need to keep up to date with the case law and application of health, social welfare and mental capacity legislation in order to ensure clients' rights and access to statutory services and funding.Originality/valueThis paper provides a subjective account, and analysis, of the reality of independent case managers working proactively, pragmatically and intensively across multidisciplinary and multiagency settings in the pursuit of clients' statutory rights.