Some 78 per cent of brain-injured patients who were discharged from the National Rehabilitation Centre failed to receive the treatment package recommended to them by the Dun Laoghaire hospital, according to a survey.
And almost one-quarter received no follow-up treatment in the community at all.
The survey found that a "typical" patient had just one visit from a public health nurse and six sessions of physiotherapy after being discharged.
"Given that the person with acquired brain injury has a normal life expectancy and that they typically have their injury when they are in their early 20s, the reality is that once people leave the hospital system they are effectively not receiving the rehab they require", said the report, which will be featured on tonight's Prime Time on RTE 1.
The report highlighted the financial and mental strains on carers, noting: "The toll of dealing with the psychological and physical problems for 30 to 40 years is enormous."
Some 44 per cent of primary carers said they had been unable to return to work because of their caring duties. More than half said that they suffered from depression, 37 per cent had experienced relationship breakdowns and one-fifth had increased their smoking.
The distress caused by a family member acquiring brain injury was being "exacerbated further by the absence of appropriate and easily accessible community-based services to deal with the patients' physical and psychological problems", the report said.
Up to 80 cases were surveyed for the research project, which was the first of its kind at the centre. Respondents expressed a particular need for respite care, physiotherapy and therapy for the emotional and behavioural problems associated with brain injury.
The report quoted one carer who complained that "little or nothing" had been done for her son in the 7 1/2 years since he acquired his injury. "What value in pounds and pence do you put on a young man of 27 years? Shame on you, all who are responsible for the deterioration in my son's life."
Another carer said: "I tried to maintain a job by working evenings and weekends, but had to give this up, and I am now on the dole."
Tonight's Prime Time, entitled Forgotten Survivors, is on RTE 1 at 9.30 p.m.
