3 reasons brain injuries can lead to long-term job issues

People can suffer brain injuries through many different kinds of workplace accidents. They might fall and hit their head. They could have chemical exposure that causes hypoxia and results in brain damage. They could get violently shaken up in a machinery crash or even be struck by a piece of moving equipment.

A brain injury on the job might mean more than a few days off to recover. For some people, it may mean a lifetime of needing nursing aides or even life support. For those with moderate brain injuries who have lasting symptoms, their condition could lead to long-term disability even if they don’t require constant medical intervention to survive.

Brain injuries can change your sense of balance and motor function

Brain injuries can lead to people feeling dizzy, having difficulty with coordination or losing strength. Some people may struggle with walking smoothly, while others may lack the fine motor skills necessary to do the detailed tasks of their job. If you suffer balance or motor function consequences, you may not be able to go back to the same job you had before you were injured.

Brain injuries can affect memory and cognition

Whether you need to follow a specific chemical process in an industrial plant or calculate people’s tax responsibilities, difficulty remembering things, problems focusing and challenges with problem-solving could all limit your ability to keep doing the same work.

Brain injuries can affect how someone behaves

Depending on the part of the brain affected by the injury, someone with a brain injury could experience a change in personality, mood or even impulse control.

People may not make the same decisions they might want have made or may no longer relate as effectively to other people. Both those and managerial and customer-facing positions may find that the interpersonal changes so common with brain injuries affect their work negatively or keep them from doing their job at all.

Those with brain injury symptoms that prevent them from continuing to work may need to speak long term disability benefits through workers’ compensation.