Book Review “My Parent Has A Brain Injury” Jo Johnson
24th April 2013
Georgia (age 14) and Zeke’s (age 12) dad had a brain injury 5 years ago. They commented the following on Jo’s book “My parent has a brain injury”
“This book made us feel less alone and more open to talking about our experiences and feelings. Throughout the book there are well presented and colourful speech bubbles which contain many young people’s experiences of their parent’s brain injury. These speech bubbles were particularly reassuring for us, as we could see similarities between our own experiences and those presented in the book; we realised that other people can relate to and understand our situation.
It was hugely valuable to have practical advice about how we can look after ourselves and we felt that the section where the reader is able to write about their own experience and feelings is a great idea. It can be helpful and much easier to write things down compared to talking to someone about it.
Overall we felt that the book was easy to understand due to its clear, simple writing style and its use of scenarios that young people are able to relate to. The pages were colourful, well laid out and had great pictures which kept our attention throughout. We enjoyed reading the book because of the humour used and the very useful information.”
Brain injury can have huge implications for the injured person but can also change the lives of their family. This book provides essential education and useful advice to inform, reassure and help young people cope with their feelings and emotions.
Jo Johnson is a Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist. Her book begins with factual information about the brain and how brain injury effects daily functioning which is essential in helping the reader to understand how and why brain injury has changed their parent’s behaviour. It then provides some simple and practical suggestions of how they can help their parent cope with some of their difficulties. The book places a huge emphasis on acknowledging the difficult scenarios, range of emotions and confusing feelings that young people often experience about their parent and their situation. After reassuring the reader that their emotions and feelings are normal, the book provides advice for looking after themselves and many practical suggestions for coping with their feelings. To finish the book there are other young people’s stories and a space for the reader to write about their own experience. Importantly the details of relevant organisations have been included in the back to provide further support.
This guide for young people is a valuable resource for any young person who has a parent or family member with a brain injury. Additionally it could be highly useful for professionals to help educate and open up lines of communication about this topic with young people.
Please contact us on 02392 377399 if you would like to purchase a copy of Jo Johnson’s book.
Book review by Juanita Merriman, Assistant Psychologist.