October 2002

The Brain Injury Association of Arkansas’

This will be the first newsletter from the Brain Injury Association of Arkansas in several months. We hope to get back to sending out a newsletter at least every two month.

This issue will be devoted to giving you an update on what is happening within the Association.

We are sorry to announce the resignation of our Executive Director, David Bolick. David has served the association full time for the past two years. However, due to the very limited financial resources of the Association, David found it necessary to return full time to real estate. Our Thanks to David for all he did for the Association the past two years. The various jobs that David covered as ED have been spread among various board members.

Mike Rainwater, our Association Treasurer, has also found it necessary to resign. Mike will remain on the Board. Gary Low has agreed to serve out the remainder of Mike’s term. Gary served as Treasurer for several months before Mike was elected.

Hopefully, this newsletter will reach you before our symposium begins. The symposium will be Thursday and Friday, October 17 & 18 at the J A Gilbreath Conference Center at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock. We have a wonderful line up of speakers covering a wide variety of brain injury related topics. We are expecting the symposium to be well attended again this year. Registrations have been coming in steadily for the past few weeks. On-line registration is available on our home page along with a detailed list of speakers and topics. Up to 11 CEU are available for selected professions. A list of topics and speakers is shown on the next page.

• "Case Management" - Mike Davis
• "How the Brain Works" - Vann Smith, PhD
• "Aging & Brain Injury" - Amy Gonzales
• "Drug Abuse & Brain Injury" - Gary Tharp, MD
• "Meeting the special education needs of TBI students" - Jeff Adams
• "Post-acute Brain Injury Rehabilitation-Evaluating Options for Achieving Functional Outcomes" - Gary Seale
• "Evidenced Based Practice in Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Methods to Outcomes" - Mike Mazzoni, PhD
• "Legal Documentation When Dealing with Brain Injury" - Mike Bee, LLC
• "TBI Needs Assessment Update" - Ann Vollers
• "Driving after Brain Injury" - John Johnson
• "The Interactional Basis of Behavior Change Following TBI" - Marty McMorrow

The annual general membership meeting is coming up in December. This is the meeting where the Board reports to the membership in more details on the status of the Association. At the meeting new and returning Board members are elected by the general membership. The meeting will be in December at a date, time and place to be determined by the Board. A more formal and detailed agenda will be send to all paid members at a later time. Please make plans to attend this important meeting.

One of the main problems that family members and caregivers encounter following a brain injury is getting answers to a wide variety of questions and support during trying times. Doctors and other health professionals, because they don’t know what the future holds, often present the worst-case scenario to the family members. Many times the family members are confused and overwhelmed with the situation they find themselves in and don’t even know what questions to ask. This is where the support groups are most helpful and beneficial. The support groups are often organized and made up of health professionals who are directly involved with brain injuries. The support groups also consist of many survivors, family members and caregivers that have been through many of the same trying times. While all brain injuries are different, there are many common points that can be shared with family members and caregivers of recent brain injury survivors. If there is a support group that meets in your area, get involved. Everyone in a support group benefits from sharing and associating with other members. On the back page is a list of active support groups. If there is not a group that meets in your area, contact us about getting a group started.

What do you see as the purpose of the Brain Injury Association of Arkansas? One of the questions that comes up often in Board meetings is "What is our purpose?" We would like some feed back on what you think we should be doing to support those who have survived a brain injury. If there is something you think we should be doing and we aren’t or something we need to do better, send a note to our mailbox or by email to one of the officers or Board members. Our email addresses are available on our web site. We welcome all comments and suggestions.

Probably one of the hardest things about publishing a newsletter is having something to put on the pages. In the past we have had many great articles from some of our professional members as well as from survivors and family members/caregivers. If you would be willing to submit an article, please contact Gary Low at 501-664-9469 or by e-mail to gary@glowar.com. Articles can be submitted on paper, on a diskette or by e-mail.

About a year ago, Arkansas was awarded a HRSA Grant to determine what the needs of the brain injury survivors were in Arkansas. Our Association had a small part by sending a survey to survivors and family members/caregivers. One of the problems we had was identifying those who needed to be sent the survey. To help make such efforts easier in the future, we had added an on-line registration for a "Brain Injury Survivor Registry" on our home page. We have also arranged for a one-year membership in the Association for all survivors who register on-line. If you know a brain injury survivor who does not received our newsletter, encourage them to sign up on-line. If they don’t have access to the Internet, contact Gary Low, our webmaster, at 501-664-9469, and he’ll arrange for them to get a hard-copy registration form.

Mary Anne Sullivan – President – SullivanMaryAnne@uams.edu
Rene Boucher– Vice President – rehabrene@hotmail.com
Diane Gottsponer – Secretary – tdgottsp@baptist-health.org
Gary Low – Treasurer – gary@glowar.com

Support Group Contacts:

Little Rock, 2^nd Tuesday – Diane Gottsponer, 501-202-7047
Fayetteville, 2^nd Tuesday – Sherry Priestaf, 479-442-5600
Russellville/Clarksville – Jim Spragins, 479-890-5751
Conway, 2^nd Monday – Lorri Buddenberg, 501-450-3192
Mountain Home, 1^st Saturday – Vann Smith, PhD, 870-445-4941
Jonesboro – Angie Schmidt, 870-932-0440
Hot Springs – Bill Hartley, 501-525-8463

Stroke Support Group
Little Rock, 1^st Wednesday – Michael Inman, PhD, 501-202-7617