My Brain Injury Journey: An Awareness Campaign That Centers Survivors

Every March, the Brain Injury Association of America leads the community in celebrating Brain Injury Awareness Month, from spearheading federal and state-level advocacy efforts, to raising critical funds for brain injury programs to elevating the stories and lived experiences of people affected by brain injury.

A major awareness initiative for BIAA – not just during Brain Injury Awareness Month, but all year long – is the My Brain Injury Journey campaign: an awareness campaign that centers and elevates the varied and unique experiences of people affected by brain injury. The high-level message of the My Brain Injury Journey campaign focuses on several aspects of brain injury, including:

• In many cases, a brain injury can be a chronic condition—not an isolated, one-time event.
• There is a significant gap between public perception and reality when it comes to understanding brain injury. Unless someone has lived experience with a brain injury, is someone in a survivor’s inner circle, or is a medical professional who has experience treating a wide range of brain injuries, many don’t understand that there can be recurring and consistent physical, emotional, behavioral, or cognitive effects.
• Brain injuries can change and shift over time. Sometimes, these changes and shifts are positive, and conditions will improve. Other times, these can be negative effects, with brain injury survivors experiencing additional challenges.

The My Brain Injury Journey campaign seeks to:

• Grab the attention of the public by shining light on some of the lesser-known aspects of brain injury—its chronic nature, and that brain injuries look different for each individual survivor.
• Educate the public around the complexities of brain injuries—how each one is unique, that they’re more than simply a one-time event, and that for many, these are invisible disabilities that keep others from fully understanding the entire picture, or the “real story.”

How Brain Injury Professionals Can Support the My Brain Injury Journey Campaign

While the My Brain Injury Journey campaign centers the voices and experiences of individuals with lived experience, professionals who treat or care for brain injury survivors – particularly those who have achieved ACBIS credentials – bring an invaluable perspective to the conversation around brain injury awareness. ACBIS-certified professionals have a unique opportunity to not only share their own knowledge and expertise to educate the public about the dynamic reality of living with brain injury, but also encourage their patients and clients to share their own experiences.

BIAA has put together a free Brain Injury Awareness Month toolkit, which includes resources to help individuals share their stories and experiences, as well as information about how to get involved with brain injury advocacy.

Professionals can also get involved with the Be a Voice for Brain Injury effort, a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign held during Brain Injury Awareness Month. Last year, several professionals working in neurorehabilitation set up fundraising teams, encouraging not only their colleagues, but their clients as well, to engage.