2024 Summit Attracts a Record Audience!

The UKABIF 2024 Summit, held at The Lowry in Salford on Monday 4 ^th November, attracted a record audience this year.

UKABIF Chair of Trustees, Professor Andrew Bateman and Trustee James Piercy welcomed the 350 delegates to the day before the presentations took place.  The theme running throughout the programme was inclusion of lived experience and  many sessions were co-present ed  by people with experience of acquired brain injury . This is  central to UKABIF’s work  and  received a warm response from attendees. 

In the opening session, Labour activist and Chief of Staff, Natasa  Pantelic spoke about  her experiences in politics, the government's plans for health and spoke passionately about how we can all affect change to improve  outcomes for people with an Acquired Brain Injury . 

Kate Tantam from #RehabLegends  presented the power of patient stories and how they  are a huge catalyst for change within the NHS and wider systems. 

Kevin Quarterly, who described his lived experience of brain injury explaining the struggle to find the right support and the  importance of his wife’s support ,  was followed by Dr Mike Dilley who  spoke about  the importance of diagnosing functional symptoms to ensure appropriate approaches to rehabilitation.

Dr Virginia Newcombe from Brains TBI and her co-investigator  Joanne Lloyd discussed  the  much needed reclassification for Traumatic Brain Injury, which  will  see the removal of the currently used ‘mild’, ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’and the importance of putting patients front and centre of research.

New in post at the National Rehabilitation Centre, Director of Research Professor Rui Loureiro  gave an overview of the Centre’s Research strategy whilst Debbie Butler spoke about her lived experience and how important patient involvement is to her life.

Identical twins Ellis and Luke Parry shared  Luke's TBI recovery journey from a patient and caregiver perspective, and talked about  how this motivated the founding of  neumind - a startup aiming to improve access to gold-standard neurorehabilitation. 

The team behind the Heads Together Research Project, gave a  three pronged synopsis of the ir  NIHR funded work, which  addresses  the under-researched and under-taught  area of Brain Injury Social Work.

The day culminated in a panel discussion on how to improve  outcomes for people with acquired brain injurywhich included Dr Krystyna Walton, Paul Brown and Dr Mike Dilley  and was expertly chaired by Paul from  Exchange Chambers.

In addition to the line-up of speakers throughout the day, delegates had the opportunity to speak to almost 40 exhibitors including legal firms, physiotherapists, charities and tech companies who offered a wealth of information, advice and goodies for the attendees.

Chloe Hayward, Executive Director  of UKABIF, said: “We are delighted to have hosted another incredible Summit bringing together such a fantastic line-up of expert speakers. As always, their knowledge and experience was inspiring to hear and learn from.

“As well as the programme of speakers, the Summit is always a wonderful opportunity for delegates to make new connections which can only help in our commitment to improving the lives of everyone with an acquired brain injury. Thank you to everyone who came along - together we are making positive changes.”

Our thanks to our sponsors Irwin Mitchell, Cygnet Health Care, Slater and Gordon Lawyers, and Leigh Da y. 

A more detailed review of the summit is available here.