March is Brain Injury Awareness Month

“LIving with Brain Injury” Focuses on Improving Lives

Nashville, March 9, 2006

Every 23 seconds, brain injury occurs in the United States. Approximately 5.3 million Americans currently have long-term or lifelong needs for help to perform daily activities as a result of a traumatic brain injury.

This March, the Brain Injury Association of America observes the third annual Brain Injury Awareness Month. The awareness campaign, “Living with Brain Injury,” focuses its initiatives on improving the lives of individuals living with traumatic brain injury (TBI), as well as family members and caregivers, through education about this silent epidemic.

TBI is an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force resulting in total or partial disability or impairment. TBI frequently results from motor vehicle crashes or from falls when the head abruptly stops moving and the brain collides with the hard walls of the skull. Of the 7,048 TBIs reported in 2004, 3,733 were due to motor vehicle accidents and 2,138 were from accidental falls (provisional data from the Division of Health Statistics, Tennessee Department of Health).

The Tennessee Department of Health, through its Traumatic Brain Injury Program, offers services and educational for those who suffer from TBI and their family members and caregivers. In collaboration with Easter Seals Tennessee, Inc., Camp Hickory Wood offers adult and youth survivors of TBI a weekend or week-long social and recreational opportunity to meet others with TBI. Another program, Project BRAIN, is a federally-funded program in partnership with the Tennessee Disability Coalition to improve educational outcomes for children with TBI in Tennessee. In September 2005, the Department of Health was awarded $120,000 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to strengthen Tennessee’s injury prevention and control programs and activities, and to enhance the state’s injury tracking capabilities, including TBI.

The Brain Injury Association of Tennessee is holding its 2006 conference in conjunction with Brain Injury Awareness Month on Friday, March 10, themed “Traumatic Brain Injury: Past, Present & Future” at Landers Plaza, 2451 Atrium Way, Nashville, Tenn., 37214. The conference is co-sponsored by the Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Council, the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities and Project BRAIN. For more information, contact the Brain Injury Association of Tennessee at (615) 248-5878 or the Tennessee Traumatic Brain Injury Program at 1-800-882-0611.

Many people with TBI suffer from problems with memory, planning and organizational abilities and judgment. More serious effects include disability, paralyzation and death. Other effects of TBI include headaches, seizures and decreased muscular strength and coordination.

For more information about TBI or programs available in Tennessee, visit the Department of Health’s Web site at http://www.tn.gov/health or call the Tennessee Traumatic Brain Injury Program at 1-800-882-0611. For information about Brain Injury Awareness Month, visit http://www.biausa.org or call the National Brain Injury Information Center at 1-800-444-6443.