Brain Injury Rehabilitation Services

The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Services (BIRS) is a South Australian statewide specialist rehabilitation service, which covers South Australia and also provides services for clients from western New South Wales, western Victoria and the Northern Territory.

BIRS includes:

• the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit (BIRU) which provides inpatient rehabilitation programmes for individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) who require medical and nursing care. The unit has a 28-bed capacity. BIRU is located within Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre.
• the Home and Community Brain Injury Rehabilitation Services which offer community and home-based rehabilitation programs from sites based at Felixstow and Fullarton.
• the Brain Injury Tele-Rehabilitation Service is available to rural and remote country SA clients. Adelaide based practitioners and therapists work with the country patients, family carers and therapists utilising video-conference equipment.

The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Services provide specialised rehabilitation programs for adults with traumatic and non-traumatic acquired brain injuries (ABI). Non-traumatic causes of ABI, include cerebrovascular disease, hypoxic brain injury etc.

The Rehabilitation Programs include:

• Interdisciplinary team approach (including occupational therapy, neuropsychology and psychology, neurophysiotherapy, nursing, social work, dietetics, medical, speech pathology, aquatic physiotherapy, recreational/vocational/educational and driver retraining services);
• Individual and family focussed programs designed to meet every day life goals;
• Learning new and modified skills within the home and community environments;
• Support, education and counselling for individuals and their families;
• Access to therapies and professional staff of all disciplines;
• Community support by active liaison with community resources;
• Spasticity Clinic for inpatients and outpatients focussing on issues related to spasticity and other sequelae of acquired brain injury.

Senior Rehabilitation Specialist: Dr Peter Anastassiadis