A NEW £4million, 25-bed hospital offering psychological support for patients recovering from brain injuries is to open in Glasgow.

Leading UK charity, the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust, is to open its first Scottish centre offering services for patients affected by the side-effects of brain injury including memory loss and emotional problems.

Campaigners have welcomed the move to help plug a gap in residential support services, particularly in psychological care, for patients when they are discharged from hospital.

They say many with the condition are forced to source care in other parts of the UK with young people often ending up being treated in elderly care homes.

The new unit, in Springburn, will offer intensive neuro-behavioural assessment and rehabilitation for patients aged between 18 and 65 with severe cognitive, physical or emotional problems following a brain injury.

Between 70 and 100 jobs will be created as a result of the opening in September.

The service is registered with the Care Commission in Scotland and will take NHS referrals as well as privately-funded patients.

The majority of people who suffer from head injuries are likely to have problems with memory, understanding, judgment and controlling their emotions.

Earlier this year MSPs debated a 1000-plus-signature petition set up by Glasgow-based Brain Injury Awareness Campaign (BrainIAC), which is demanding improved support for patients on leaving hospital.

Around 30,000 people in Scotland live with an acquired brain injury, many of them young.

Mike McPeake, project manager, said: "We have for some time been keen to establish a presence in Scotland knowing there was likely to be a significant demand for the service.

"The service will be built around a behavioural model of rehabilitation rather than a medical model and will led by a team of psychologists with nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and support workers all contributing to the process.

"The service is aimed primarily at people who have challenging behavior and will seek to return people where possible to their homes or the least restrictive environment possible.

"One of the most common side-effects can be memory loss which can be incredibly frustrating.

"As a charity any surplus generated would be re-invited into the provision of new services such as providing suitable houses for people as part of their rehabilitation.

"We have been working very closely with the NHS in Glasgow to identify what is needed and we know there is a gap in this type of service."

Treatment will include preparation for returning to independent living, including practising day to day life skills.

In 2003 Scotland's first custom-built community unit to help brain injury victims return to independent living opened in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. Other brain injury rehabilitation centres exist in Bonkle, North Lanarkshire and Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust has launched a campaign to help prevent brain injury in younger people as part of national brain injury awareness week, which will run from May 11 until May 17.

The 3T (Ten Thousand Teenagers) campaign encourage young people to wear protective headgear while on bikes and consider the effect of drug use on the brain.

CASE STUDY: ALAN AGAR

Brain injury rehab services have given Alan a new outlook in life THE new centre has been welcomed by accident victim Alan Agar who has campaigned for improved support services for brain injury victims after he was left with a severe brain injury. The 57-year-old from Bearsden suffered such serious injuries when a car travelling at 50mph ploughed into him as he cycled that ambulance records described him as a "presumed fatality". The former civil engineering lecturer is now secretary of the Brain Injury Awareness Cam-paign, a group pressing for the introduction of a separate, distinct health and community care category for brain injury victims. He said: "The new centre is a very welcome step up because it offers the all-embracing residential approach which has not as yet been available in Scotland. "When I came out of hospital at the Southern General which is aimed mainly at people with physical disabilities, there was nothing in the way of neurobehavioural rehab. "I was not aware at that stage that I had any cognitive or behavioural or emotional problems. "And I didn't realise then that it is common for brain injured people to lack insight or self-perception. "It was only three years later that I was seen by a brain injury rehab consultant from England. "Then shortly after this I was told that a new Community Treatment Centre for Brain Injury was opening in the Gorbals using the relatively new neurobehavioural rehab therapy. "Although it did not offer an all-embracing approach with live-in facilities, it was very useful in helping me develop personal strate-gies for day-to-day living."