Brain Injury Awareness Month

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month.  According to the Brain Injury Association of America, each year an estimated 2.4 million children and adults in the United States sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and another 795,000 individuals sustain an acquired brain injury (ABI) from nontraumatic causes.  Brain controls every aspect of our being -- including emotions, thinking, memory, and personality -- and brain injury impacts not just the individual, but also family members and loved ones.

The Missouri Institute of Mental Health has a video with Dr. Tom Martin of UMissouri-Columbia, which gives an overview of traumatic brain injury.  Link here.  Falls are the greatest cause of traumatic brain injury, though traffic accidents and sports injuries also contribute.

The Brain Injury Association of Missouri's mission is "to reduce the incidence of brain injury; to promote acceptance, independence, and productivity of persons with brain injury; and to support their families."  Their website is full of resources for support and information.

Some books at SLPL that address brain injury:

• The traumatized brain: a family guide to understanding mood, memory, and behavior after brain injury by Vani Rao, MBBS, MD, and Sandeep Vaishnavi, MD, PhD
• Coping with concussion and mild traumatic brain injury: a guide to living with the challenges associated with post concussion syndrome and brain trauma by Diane Roberts Stoler, Ed.D., and Barbara Albers Hill
• Living with brain injury: a guide for patients and families by Richard C. Senelick
• For kids: What you need to know about concussions by Kristine Carlson Asselin
• Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas
• Traumatic brain injury: from concussion to coma by Connie Goldsmith