Participation in the Home Environment after ABI

Everyone who has a home has dreamt at some time or another about a magic wand to bring their home back to order, despite knowing that in fact the many tasks involved in running or managing a home are the responsibility of the family members who live  there.

So what do you do if something suddenly happens that changes your ability to manage, organise or physically carry out the many tasks involved in running a home? Who will do the cleaning, the cooking, the laundry, the gardening, the general maintenance, the paperwork, pay the bills, remember the activities, make the appointments, help with the homework, the parenting or the care of other family members?

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) may temporarily or permanently impact on a person's ability to carry out the tasks that they would normally routinely do around their home every day. Changes in physical, cognitive (or thinking),  communication, social and behavioural abilities frequently mean that adjustments may need to be made in relation to "who" does the various household tasks and / or "how" the tasks are done.

Learning a new or different way to do an old task can be all that is required for the person with the ABI to resume a particular task independently. Establishing a system of prompting may also assist the person with the ABI to complete part or all of a task. Sometimes changing who does a particular task can be the key to improving how the person with the ABI is able to manage other household tasks. For example, if heavy housework causes fatigue that prevents the successful completion of night time tasks such as meal preparation and childcare getting assistance with the housework during the day may instead allow these night time tasks to be managed. A change in "who" does tasks may mean that someone else in a family may start doing tasks that were not previously their role or it may also mean that a community support service is engaged to assist with the completion of certain tasks.

  lady holding a basket of clean laundry

If you have an Acquired Brain Injury the following resources may assist you to:

  • Increase your skills and ideas for managing your daily household tasks following your ABI
  • Provide information for your family, friends and service that you are working with
  • Give ideas for where you can go for further information, services, support or advice


ABIOS Resources:

Managing Medication after ABI (pdf, 471kb)


Other helpful sections of the ABIOS Website:

Behaviour Change after ABI
Cognitive or Thinking Skill Changes after ABI
Communication Changes after ABI
Dysphagia or Swallowing Changes after ABI
Mental Health and ABI

Helpful websites:

Life Tec offers a range of services and advice concerning adaptive equipment and technology that can assist in improving independence in task completion around the home

Synapse has helpful factsheets on Lifestyle Aids




Return to Life after ABI



Contact ABIOS
abios@health.qld.gov.au

Last updated: 12 July 2022