Brain Injury Awareness Week

Concussion? Head Trauma? Recovering from a Stroke? Mild Cognitive Impairment? There are resources available that can help you improve and recover from a Brain Injury.

As both the President of the Brain Injury Alliance of Wisconsin (BIAW) and the Executive Director of LearningRx I have had the privilege of helping many individuals recover or at least improve their quality of life from what can be the devasting effects of a head injury. At the BIAW we refer to Brain Injury as the silent epidemic.

According to the Brain Injury Association of American:

• When considering just TBI it is as prevalent as all Cancers combined.
• For all Traumatic Brain Injury that occurred in 2000 the estimated lifetime costs are over $400 billion, this would be even greater now.
• 20% of all TBI is caused by falls, another 20% is from motor vehicle accidents.
• 80% of most injuries are mild, the remaining 20% are mild to severe.

What do you do if you have suffered a brain injury either from an insult to the head (TBI) or acquired as in a stroke or mild cognitive impairment? Of course, the first step is to consult your physician. But what do you do if symptoms persist? For example, continued issues with executive function, memory, and or attention? Or chronic physical issues? A few good resources to connect with are:

• Brain Injury Alliance of Wisconsin https://biaw.org/
• United States Brain Injury Alliance https://usbia.org/
• Brain Injury Association of America https://www.biausa.org/

All of these groups will know of resources near you that can help. This includes rehabilitation and medical services. In-home care, and long-term care facilities, as well as access to support groups.

In addition, you can seek assistance from organizations like LearningRx. LearningRx can do a cognitive skills assessment and help identify the root cause of many persistent problems, like memory, and processing skills. Many of our clients have experienced improvements in memory and executive function because of brain training.

The bottom line is that you are not alone and there is help available. Any of these organizations would be glad to help connect you with the right resources for your family.

Finally, here is a testimonial from a client who utilized several of the resources mentioned to get the right services for their family.

“I never thought I would regain my short term and long term memory after my traumatic brain injury five years ago. Numerous doctors said they couldn’t do anything for me, leaving me with little hope of a normal life again. After working with my spectacular Learning Rx trainer, I can confidently face a future enjoying my regained skills (and some even surpassing my skills prior to the brain injury).”