Will You Take the ACBIS Community Challenge?

The members of the Academy Committee of the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists (ACBIS) recognize the value of our professional community in supporting Americans impacted by brain injury. We embrace this issue of the ACBIS Insider’s theme of Building a Community. The Academy’s core mission is to build our professional community by continually updating and growing our family of Certified Brain Injury Specialists and encouraging a standard of care and shared education across organizations in working with people with brain injury in their recoveries.

Brain Injury: An Underrated Public Health Concern

Our brain injury insiders all know the statistics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every day an estimated 586 people are hospitalized for a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and 190 people are fatally wounded by a TBI. This does not include the people whose injuries go undetected or untreated, particularly those who are denied access to care as a result of income or healthcare disparities. It is estimated that one in 60 Americans are living with a permanent brain injury-related disability.

These statistics remind us that brain injury is an underrated public health concern. At the local level, the person or family impacted by brain injury may not have many – or any – ways to access outpatient or community clinics, yet still need help long after discharge. And those who never make their way to the healthcare system following a brain injury, seeking help days, weeks, or even months after struggling with the ways their brain injury disrupts their quality of life. In some communities, brain injury specialists are not always easy to find – or available.

We want to change that. The ACBIS professional community has a profound opportunity to raise awareness to the value of ACBIS training and certifications across academia, health care, and private practices. We believe we could not only empower more people to deliver aligned, quality services, but we could propagate more brain injury recovery touchpoints in communities at large.

Enroll, Encourage, Empower

This month, we hope you will join us in our professional ACBIS Community Challenge. There are plenty of ways to help us grow the ACBIS Community, including:

• Exploring the certification and certificate programs available to you through ACBIS
• Elevating your expertise by earning your Advanced Practice certification
• Empowering a colleague who hasn’t been certified to apply for CBIS certification or to attend a live virtual CBIS training
• Encouraging a student to earn their provisional certification
• Holding a training (must be a CBIST) to empower other future Certified Brain Injury Specialists or
• Pursuing the Understanding Concussion: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment Approaches certificate course launched earlier this year

We encourage you to go to www.biausa.org and enroll or empower others to seek ACBIS certification. As we grow our professional ACBIS community and our reach, we believe that we advance all communities in brain injury recovery. ACBIS certification offers brain injury professionals the opportunity to make an impact and unite with like-minded, passionate colleagues who are equally committed to improving the quality of care for people with brain injury. Join us in our core mission today. Your community awaits.