With June “Brain Injury Awareness Month” now behind us, BRAININJURYFORUM.com encourages continued mindfulness of the potential risks for head injury and physical upset as everyone begins to engage in various activities throughout the summer and months that follow. If there is something that each of us can take away, it is that “Prevention” works and it is a great place to start, followed by “Awareness” and “Understanding” as our guides.
Participating in any sport, whether it’s recreational bike riding, skateboarding or Pee-Wee league softball to football, it can teach our kids to stretch their limits and learn sportsmanship and discipline. However, each activity and/or sport carries the potential for injury. By knowing the causes of sports injuries and how to prevent them, you can help make athletics a positive experience for a child. Kids can be particularly susceptible to sports injuries for a number of reasons. Kids, particularly those younger than 8 years old, are less coordinated and have slower reaction times than adults because they are still growing and developing. In addition, kids mature at different rates. Often there’s a substantial difference in height and weight between kids of the same age. And when kids of varying sizes play sports together, there can be an increased risk of injury.
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Brain injury awareness
On behalf of the March of Dimes Acquired Brain Injury Program, I would like to extend many thanks and gratitude to our Timmins Community Policing, and the Porcupine Health Unit, along with the Seizure & Brain Injury Centre.
Our agency was welcomed to participate in their annual bike rodeo, held indoors at the McIntyre Arena for local Grade 2 and 3 students.
The four services involved, provided separate stations that shared in the importance of educating young children, by practising safe use of equipment to prevent injuries.
The bike rodeo had helped us in providing public awareness on the effects of traumatic brain injuries related to improper bicycle or helmet use.
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By James N. Dillard, M.D.
(June 24, 2010) “Things in the head are not good,” our neurology professor grimly intoned. He stroked at his salt-and-pepper beard in a classic doctor’s gesture. We had just come from the bedside of a 28-year-old carpenter who had fallen two stories from a work scaffold and struck his head. The patient was barely conscious.
We can transplant hearts, kidneys, corneas, lungs, and livers. We can replace insulin, growth hormone, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and aldosterone. Big joints and little joints can be traded in for titanium and plastic ones. But we have only one irreplaceable brain.
Encased in that bony box on top of your neck is by far the most sophisticated single thing on earth — and it’s barely used. Most of us live narrowly within habit, prejudice, and repetition. In the words of Albert Einstein, “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.”
And yet, any loss of this wondrous device can be devastating. Stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s, aneurysm, Alzheimer’s, and Lou Gehrig’s disease are some of the most feared conditions that we have. Though these disorders are frequently discussed, brain injuries are less often mentioned.
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The impact and consequences of a “brain injury” on any individual, family or relationship can have an effect that reaches far beyond the injured survivor. As how a brain injury affects who a person once was; it also affects how a primary caregiver and family once were. Relationships, family roles and responsibilities can experience change. Interpersonal communication can become a serious challenge to everyone connected with this scenario and who maybe dealing with their own myriad of intense feelings of shock, denial, anger, and depression that can accompany the losses resulting from such a traumatic injury.
A brain injury can change a family’s functionality, balance, its dynamics, harmony and landscape forever. “It has been said, that although we may not have physically lost the person, there is often the loss of the person we once new”. Losing someone you care for can be painful, however when it comes to brain injury, we live with a living reminder of that loss each day which can make it even more difficult. Support for families who live with, care for and provide structured support to a survivor is an area often overlooked, underfunded and needing more attention and focus. .
Support for families who live with a survivor is often scarce. What each family requires can vary however there are some fundamental basics that would be helpful for all. Support can be beneficial with; helping family’s through different challenges and transitions, understanding brain injury and what they are seeing, reducing stressors, living with a survivor, acquiring coping strategies, creating independence with the goal of reducing dependency, how to support a survivor and move forward and living within altered relationships to list a few.
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June as Brain Injury Awareness Month (Canada) BRAININJURYFORUM.com presents part (2) “Brain Injury and its potential Impact on an Individual”.
One family’s story – No two brain injuries or individuals are alike, and with that said, no two outcomes or recoveries alike either. Some survivors do better than others with their recovery and that can be a result of a number of factors. In lay terms, some of those are; the type of injury, region(s) of the brain affected, injury severity, access to rehabilitation services, pre-accident health related status, to even the level of support provided by family.
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With the increase of older novice motorcycle enthusiasts on the roads and highways, it’s critical that new cycle riders understand the top five critical safety tips to avoid injury or death on the Virginia (VA) or neighboring Carolina highways (or anywhere else for that matter). Our top five motorcycle safety tips are below.
Motorcycle Safety Tip 1
Proper riding gear is essential to your safety and includes – a DOT approved helmet (that complies with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 218), eye protection, gloves, long pants and over the ankle boots.
Helmets protect the rider from head injury, flying objects, hearing loss and cold or sunburn. Head injuries (traumatic brain injury/concussion) account for the vast majority of motorcycle fatalities. Statistics show riders are five times more likely to sustain a critical head injury in a crash without a helmet.
In the past five years, motorcycle helmet use has been increasing slowly but steadily – from 48 percent in 2005 to 67 percent in 2009, according to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The American Motorcyclist Association has a state-by-state list of helmet laws for your reference.
Continue reading: Motorcycle Safety: The Top 5 Tips To Safety Avoid Injuries
Throughout the month of June, the Brain Injury Association of Canada will be putting a face on acquired brain injuries through their ‘Every picture tells a story…” poster campaign. One of those stories is that of Larry Carlson, Manager of Programs for Adults With Disabilities at AEEL.
In his own words, here is Carlson’s story:
It was one of those glorious late autumn days when the sky was clear, the sun was shining and winter hadn’t begun. For no particular reason other than curiosity, I chose a different route than the usual to leave the city. As I was crossing an uncontrolled intersection, my car was hit broadside. The next thing I remember is that the
other driver was standing next to my car and asking if I was hurt.
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(commonly known as concussion)
A mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) is a brain injury. Mild traumatic brain injuries (concussions) are caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head. They can range from mild to severe and can disrupt the way the brain normally works.
Most people will only experience symptoms from a MTBI for a short period of time. But sometimes MTBIs can lead to long lasting problems. The best way to protect yourself and your family from MTBIs is to prevent them from happening.
How to Prevent a MTBI Read the rest of this entry »
Below is a copy of Dr. Fry’s motion which appeared in the Order Paper on May 10th. It will now sit with her other Private Members Bill on until her number comes up for debate. We can however, encourage the Government to make a decision and officially recognize this important month.
Private Members’ Notices of Motions
M-526 — May 10, 2010 — Ms. Fry (Vancouver Centre) —
That, in the opinion of the House, the month of June be officially recognized as National Brain Injury Awareness Month.
We ask all members of our community to contact their MP’s and the Prime Minister to encourage the Government to officially recognize National Brain Injury Awareness Month through an Order in Council.
Here are your MP’s coordinates.
Email Prime Minister Stephen Harper
