From My Desk
Categories: THE Challenge!
Greetings
Those affected by brain injury – survivors, their families and loved ones, and the people who treat them – all have their own stories to tell about how brain injury has changed their lives. The parts that have stayed the same, and the parts that have forever shifted. Who they were before brain injury became a part of their lives, and who they are after.
This Brain Injury Awareness Month, BIAA is proud to launch its new awareness campaign: My Brain Injury Journey. Through this campaign, we will bring attention to the changing nature of brain injury over an individual’s lifetime and shine a light on its long-term effects and complexity.
This awareness campaign is closely tied to our advocacy work. As our community gathers for Brain Injury Awareness Day on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., we’re making the case that long-term support for people with brain injury should be improved through the reauthorization of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act.
We are calling for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to designate brain injury as a chronic health condition, similar to heart disease or diabetes, and we believe that brain injury should be recognized, treated, and covered as such.
There are more than 5.3 million people in America estimated to be living with a permanent brain injury-related disability – that’s 5.3 million stories, each one as unique as the person sharing it. This Brain Injury Awareness Month, we hope you’ll share yours.
You can learn more about how can get involved with our campaign, share your story, and support the reauthorization of the TBI Act at biausa.org/MyBrainInjuryJourney.
I also want to take the time to acknowledge a new partner, the Toyota Way Forward Fund, and than them for their generous support of our Brain Injury Awareness Day activities in Washington, D.C. The Way Forward Fund is a multi-year initiative aimed at strengthening access to care and injury recovery support for individuals and their families, with an initial focus on children with TBI.
This article originally appeared in Volume 18, Issue 1 of THE Challenge! published in 2024.