KAPA‘A — March is Brain Injury Awareness Month and members of the Think BIG (Brain Injury Group) met with Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. Wednesday during its meeting at the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center to make the announcement. The purpose of the
KAPA‘A — March is Brain Injury Awareness Month and members of the Think BIG (Brain Injury Group) met with Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. Wednesday during its meeting at the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center to make the announcement.
The purpose of the Brain Injury Awareness campaign during the month of March is to promote public awareness of the extent, causes, consequences, treatment and prevention of brain injury, states a mayoral proclamation presented by Carvalho.
“We extend a warm aloha and mahalo to the Think BIG organization for its advocacy, education and research in helping to bring hope and healing to millions of individuals living with brain injury, their families and the professionals who serve them,” Carvalho said.
Citing facts from the Brain Injury Association of America, 1.7 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury each year, a contributing factor in a third of all injury-related deaths in the United States.
These injuries are largely the result of motor vehicle crashes, falls, assaults, sporting-related injuries or occupational injuries.
Additionally, traumatic brain injury is the signature injury of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and presents new challenges for members of the military and their families.
An injury that happens in an instant can bring a lifetime of physical, cognitive and behavior challenges, the proclamation states.
Early, equal and adequate access to care will greatly increase overall quality of life and will enable individuals to return to home, school, work and the community, the proclamation states.
Family members, friends and member of the community can play a central role in enhancing the lives of citizens who live after suffering traumatic brain injury.
“Brain Injury Awareness Month honors the millions of people with brain injury, who, with proper acute care, therapeutic rehabilitation and adequate long-term supports, are living with the success and challenges that each day brings,” said Susan H. Connors, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America. “Our goals this year are to continue to sustain and bolster brain injury programs, increase access to care and preserve vital brain injury research.”
Founded by Sharon Pancho, a stroke survivor, and Suzie Woolway, a speech pathologist, Think BIG’s mission provides peer support for persons with acquired brain and spinal cord injury. Its primary function is information sharing and community outreach to the survivors, their families and interested professionals.
Think BIG will join a nationwide network of state brain injury organizations affiliated with the Brain Injury Association of America, including self-advocates, families and volunteers across the nation to mark March as Brain Injury Awareness Month.
“Our support group is Kaua‘i’s first, and only one, for brain injured and spinal cord injured persons and their families,” said Cami Crosby, president of Think BIG. “Think BIG is the voice of brain injury. Through advocacy, education and research, we bring help, hope and healing to millions of individuals living with brain injury, their families and the professionals who serve them.”
Some of the activities Think BIG is going to undertake for March being Brain Injury Awareness Month is setting up informational tables outside some of the major gathering places on the island.
“Since anyone can sustain a brain injury at any time, it is important for everyone to have access to comprehensive rehabilitation and ongoing disease management,” said Dr. Brent Masel, national medical director for the Brain Injury Association of America. “Doing so eases medical complications, permanent disability, family dysfunction, job loss, homelessness, impoverishment, medical indigence, suicide and involvement with criminal or juvenile justice system. Access to early, comprehensive treatment for brain injury also alleviates the burden of long term care, which is transferred to taxpayers at the federal, state and local levels.”
Support group meetings are held at the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month.
Visit www.thinkbigkauai.com for more information.
