Brain Injury Lawyer - New York

Brain Injury Awareness Day, 2013 on Capitol Hill

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) has announced that Brain Injury Awareness Day 2013 will be held on Wednesday, March 13, 2013.

As in years past, there will be an awareness fair, briefing and reception.

The full schedule for the day is as follows: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM - Brain Injury Awareness Fair - Location to be announced Time to be announced 

Congressional Briefing - Location to be announced 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM 

Congressional Reception - Location to be announced

Additional Activities: BIAA strongly encourages everyone that plans to attend Brain Injury Awareness Day to make appointments with their Representatives and Senators to advocate for increased funding for the programs authorized through the TBI Act.

Traumatic Brain Injury and Veteran Issues: New Webinars announced by Defense Cneters for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury

The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) have announced the topics and dates for the first four monthly webinars in the 2013 brain injury Webinar Series.

The webinars are an opportunity for health care professionals who interact with service members, as well as service members and their families, to learn and ask questions about issues related to psychological health and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The webinars focus on a broad range of topics such as deployment phases, combat care, balancing home life with a deployed partner, managing challenges with posttraumatic stress disorder and TBI, and advances in behavioral health care and technologies.

Here are the announced topics and the scheduled dates:

Substance Abuse and Traumatic Brain Injury:
January 24, 2013, 1-2:30 p.m. (EST)

Chronic Pain
February 28, 2013, 1-2:30 p.m. (EST)

Vestibular Disturbances after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
March 28, 2013, 1-2:30 p.m. (EST)

Military Children and Coping with Grief/Loss
April 25, 2013, 1-2:30 p.m. (EST)

For more information, please click here

New government sponsored concussion study reported

Reuters News Service reports that a new sports concussion study has been initated by the United State Institute of Medicine, which is part of the National Academies of Science to investigate sports related concussions among our nation’s youth.  The study will look at concussions in children from elementary school through early adulthood and will also include military personnel and their dependants.

The government study will review concussions and risk factors pertaining to this type of brain injury.

The study is being headed by Robert Graham, a public health expert at the George Washington University School of Public Health.  According to Reuters, the study panel will likely submit its findings to the Institute of Medicine in the middle of the summer, with publication expected in late 2013.

Sponsors of the study include the Department of Defense, the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. The panel will also examine studies being done by the CDC and the American Academy of Neurology.

Free Brain Injury Advocacy Webinar

The Brain Injury Association of New York State is offering a free webinar:  So You Want to Be an Advocate: Federal Overview on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 12:00-1:15 p.m. EST. 

This webinar is part of the BIANYS Advocacy Series.  The presentation will provide an overview of Congress and the federal legislative process as it impacts brain injury policy.  Advocates will learn how to work with their congressional delegation, both members of the Senate and House of Representatives, in their efforts to affect public policies that benefit New Yorkers with brain injury and their families. 

Susan L. Vaughn consults with the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) on state policy issues. She is also the Director of Public Policy for the National Association of State Head Injury Administrators (NASHIA), of which she is the founder.  Susan has co-authored two articles on public policy and possesses nearly 29 years of experience in the field of disabilities.

There is NO charge for this webinar, but space is limited.  Reserve your webinar seat now by clicking here

Disability connection initiative

To celebrate its 10^th anniversary, the federal government website for comprehensive information on disability programs and services has created the “What’s your Connection?” initiative, a grassroots movement emphasizing the connections among all individuals. 

There are approximately 57 million individuals with disabilities in the United States, and they are all connected to others in some way.  Individuals nationwide are requested to share how having a disability or knowing someone with a disability has touched their lives by submitting a photograph with up to a 250 word caption by clicking here or uploading a captioned, one minute YouTube video that answers the question, “What’s Your Connection”

 

Workplace Flexibility Toolkit following a brain injury or other disability

Survivors of traumatic brain injury are entitled to reasonable accommodations in the work place.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy has released the Workplace Flexibility Toolkit, a collection of more than 170 resources for employees, employers, policymakers, and researchers. 

Workplace Flexibility enables individuals and business needs to be met through making changes in when, where and how an employee works.

The toolkit includes case studies, fact and tip sheets, issue briefs, reports, articles and links to web sites.  The toolkit can be accessed by clicking here

 

Traumatic brain injury model system fact sheets translated into Spanish

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model Systems are funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and are located in 16 Model Centers throughout the country.  In New York, a model program exists at Mt Sinai Medical Center and at Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine.

The Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) summarizes research, identifies health information needs, and develops information resources to support the Model Systems programs in meeting the needs of individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI), traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and burn injuries (Burn).

The traumatic brain injury model systems translation center has translated all of the TBI Model Systems Fact Sheets into Spanish.  The individual fact sheets are available with Spanish versions linked in PDF format.  For a list of Spanish editions click here