March is the beginning of Brain Injury Awareness Month in the United States.
Why is this month’s campaign in the year 2023 so important?
- Because traumatic brain injury and acquired brain injury are a major cause of death and disability in the United States;
- Because there are over 5.3 million Americans suffering permanent disability caused by a brain injury according to outdated statistics from the Centers for Disease Control;
- Because a concussion is a brain injury;
- Because traumatic brain injury has reached epidemic levels in the United States;
- Because more recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control report at least 2.87 Million Americans sustain a concussion each year, and that’s only those individuals who are examined in hospital emergency departments;
- What’s not included are those who are only seen in a physician’s office or an urgent care center and those who may have received no diagnosis or treatment. If these individuals are extrapolated, there are over 3.5 million Americans each year who sustain a brain injury;
- Because a brain injury can happen to anyone, any time and any place;
- Because a brain injury can be caused by a fall, a motor vehicle accident, by a pedestrian struck by a moving vehicle, because of striking your head, or because of the movement of your brain within your skull;
- Because if you shake it, you break it;
- Because acquired brain injury including strokes, aneurisms, brain hemorrhage, and Covid-19 all cause long term disability;
- Because strokes have reached epidemic levels in the United States;
- According to the American Heart Association and the American Stoke Association there are approximately 800,000 new strokes annually;
- There are approximately 100,000 deaths each year caused by strokes;
- By the year 2030, one in every twenty-five adults will suffer a stroke, which translates into 3.4 million individuals;Because 25% of women will be victims of domestic violence during their lifetime and greater than 90 % of all injuries secondary to domestic violence are to the head, neck or face;
- Because there is not proper or adequate screening of domestic violence victims for brain injury;
- Because brain injury is the signature wound of returning service members who face life long challenges including failures by the Veterans Administration to properly diagnose a TBI and failures to provide disability compensation for disabled veterans suffering the long term consequences of brain injury;
- Because studies of our homeless population and in those incarcerated find the majority of these persons have been victims of a brain injury sometime in their lives;
- Because Covid-19 has created an alarming new subset of individuals suffering long term cognitive and emotional impairments known as long-covid that mimic the cognitive, physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms faced by traumatic brain injury survivors;
- Because there is not proper identification and proper guidelines for return to play for those who sustain a concussion while engaged in athletic activities;
- And because children who return to the classroom following a brain injury do not receive adequate support;
And I can go on and on.
The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) leads the nation in observing Brain Injury Awareness Month each year. The theme for this year’s campaign continues the message started in 2021: More Than My Brain Injury, a campaign to educate others about what it’s like to live with a brain injury.
Please join the Brain Injury Association of America this month and every month in:
- Increasing understanding of brain injury as a chronic condition,
- Reducing the stigma associated with having a brain injury,
- Understanding brain injury as a diverse injury that does not discriminate based upon age, sex, race, income, or activity.
- Advocating for proper insurance coverage to meet the needs of brain injury survivors and providing these individuals and their families with proper and adequate service and support.
Support the Brain Injury Association of America: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=biausa&id=287