New minor head injury discharge factsheet
Published: 24 April 2009
Headway - the brain injury association has produced a factsheet for people discharged from A&E after a minor head injury, in the hope that the document will be widely taken up by emergency departments. This is intended to replace the current discharge advice, which varies widely between departments and is often minimal. Sadly, it is often the case that no discharge information is provided at all.
Approximately one million people annually attend A&E departments in the UK with a head injury and around 85 per cent of these injuries are minor. Although patients should be assessed and only discharged home when it is safe to do so, it is still important that they are aware of the signs of complications that require a return to A&E. The Headway factsheet provides a comprehensive list of these symptoms, as recommended in the NICE head injury guidelines, as well as some dos and don'ts to aid recovery.
What the factsheet provides
While most people make a good recovery very quickly, a significant minority experience symptoms that can last weeks, or even months, and information on this is largely absent from current discharge leaflets. The Headway factsheet lists these post-concussion symptoms, including sleep problems, fatigue, headaches, difficulty concentrating, irritability and depression, which can all have a significant effect on quality of life. It is important that people are aware that these problems are common after head injury, but that they should seek professional help if the symptoms persist. The factsheet also details the support services available, such as Headway's national helpline and groups and branches.
Getting the information out there
It has proved very difficult to distribute the factsheet widely to A&E departments, due to the fact that units already provide their own information and are often contracted to certain publishers. However, it is hoped that the factsheet will soon be available on the Headway UK website and also on the websites of the College of Emergency Medicine, the National Library for Health and Patient UK. It will then be available for hospitals to adapt and use if they wish.
The importance of unifying discharge advice and providing more information on post-concussion symptoms has been shown in numerous published studies. Also, one of the key requirements of the National Service Framework for Long Term Conditions is that patients are given information about their condition at an appropriate time. It is hoped that the factsheet will enable emergency departments to meet this requirement and provide much needed reassurance and guidance to people after minor head injury.
For more information, please contact Richard Morris, Information Officer at Headway UK, on telephone: 0115 9240800 or by email: info.officer@headway.org.uk