Aspects that can or may (remember no brain-injury is presents the same disabilities) influence your re-employment:  This month we look at memory.

To be able to perform a task successfully, your "working memory" should be in good working order.  Information is stored in "verbal memory", "visual memory" and "spatial memory".  To undertake tasks on a on-going basis you need your "medium-term memory" as well as your "long-term memory".

Sometimes, when a brain-injury occurs the survivor cannot recall memories priorto the insult, this is called "retrograde amnesia".  On the other side, "post-traumatic amnesia" occurs when the survivor is unable to recall memories after the insult. "Confubalation" refers to the instance when the wrong information is provided if the person cannot recall the factual information. 

As a general rule, if the memory impairment is severe, it is difficult to learn new task and a lot of support is needed to return to work. It will help when an intensive rehabilitation programme is followed to enable to person to return to some kind of work environment.

Information from "Brain-Injury and Returning to Employment" by James Japp