David and Alex's Story: Carers and Brain Injury

David experienced his first stroke in 2013. David’s wife Alex instantly took on a new role as his carer. Over 18 months Alex supported David to attend regular specialist appointments at the hospital to assist him to learn to walk and talk again.  

Supporting someone after brain injury can change the way life used to be in many ways: the time you have to care for yourself; changes to work and daily routines; attendance at and transport to regular appointments and being mindful of the wellbeing and safety of your family member or friend are just some of the changes a carer may experience.

For David and Alex, the roles changed again a few years later when Alex herself experienced a stroke. David and Alex had become carers for each other. David supported Alex through rehabilitation, while also still working through his own. “It was a challenging time”, he says.  

Rebuilding your life after brain injury can be a long and difficult process. Many people never fully recover and have ongoing difficulties that impact their day-to-day lives. Alex describes the ongoing impacts for herself and David like “living on a seesaw, one goes up and one down”. David and Alex tell us that they have found that working together, “being observant of one another and what each other’s needs are” day to day, has helped them adjust to what is often described as a new normal after brain injury.  

“We share the jobs at home each day, David does the vacuuming as I am not able to, we work with each other”, Alex says. Along with mutual and reciprocal support, David and Alex also reached out to services providing support for carers.

Support for Carers

Support is available to all carers through the Carer Gateway.  

Care2Serve are the Tasmanian provider of Carer Gateway services.

Care2Serve are working with BIAT to organise a retreat for carers of people with brain injury.