September 2003

The Brain Injury Association of Arkansas’

We have set October 23-24, 2003, as the date for our annual conference. The conference will be held in the Center for Health Education Auditorium at Saint Vincent’s Infirmary in Little Rock. We will partner with Disability Rights Center in hosting this year’s conference.

Once again we expect to host several excellent speakers making presentations on a variety of brain injury related topics. We have recently mailed a conference brochure. Check our web site for more details including the names of the presenters. Our web site will again offer online registration.

Conference topics are:

• Functional Implications of Brain/Behavior Relationships
• School Transition & Service – What Parents and Professional Should Know
• Protection and Advocacy Following TBI: Panel Discussion
• Prominent Issues and Interventions in Pediatric Physiatry
• Beyond Antecedent-Behavior- Consequence: Current Concepts in Behavioral Teaching Methods
• Challenges Facing Return to Work Following Brain Injury
• Psychopharmacology Overview
• Diagnosis & Compensation for Cognitive Impairments

Our conference will be an excellent opportunity for health-related professionals involved with survivors of a brain injury to pick up Contact Hours needed for continuing education requirements.

For the past few years we have been talking about ways we can better serve brain injury survivors and their caregivers. One topic that continues to come up is being more visible and easier to locate.

Recently we signed a lease for office space in downtown Little Rock. Our new office is Suite 1533 located on the 15^th floor of the TCBY Tower. The street address is 425 W Capitol.

Some of the benefits of having an office are:

• A physical presence
• A central place to keep material for distribution
• A place to keep reference materials and a lending library
• A place for volunteers and (future) paid staff to work on mass mailings and other projects.

One drawback to getting an office was that our existing phone number would not work at our new office location. Our new phone number is 501-374-3585. Our in-state, toll-free number remains 1-800-235-2443.

Now that we have established an office, the next step will be to find someone to staff the office at least 3 or 4 hours each day. We hope to use some volunteers to supplement coverage of the office hours and/or workload. We need someone to provide primary coverage and use volunteers as needed on special projects. If you are interested or know someone who might be interested in running our small office, contact Mary Anne Sullivan at 501-374-3585. Duties will include answering the phone, assembling literature and mailing in response to requests by phone, mail and email. Some light computer data entry will be required.

One of the many problems encountered by caregivers is finding health-care professionals and/or other professionals who understand and have worked with brain injury survivors and their caregivers. Those of us who have found professionals who understand our situation are often more than willing to share their name if anyone would ask.

We will try to make it easier on everyone by maintaining a referral list. If you would like to add someone to our list, send a note to our PO Box or an email to info@BrainAssociation.org. In the note/email include the person’s name, where he/she works, mailing address, phone number, email address if available and their area of expertise. Please be sure and include your name.

We will also maintain the referral list on our web site.

Now that we have an office, we would like to assemble materials for a Reference Library. We already have the start in the various newsletters we have received from other Brain Injury Associations and other sources, but we need a lot more materials, especially books and audio/video tapes. If you have materials you would be willing to donate to the Brain Injury Association of Arkansas, please let us know. As we organize the materials we already have on hand, we will publish a list in our newsletters.

If you are a member of the Brain Injury Association of Arkansas, your address label shows when you last paid membership dues and a message if your "Dues are due." We try to send out a reminder the month before a member's dues expire. Like any organization, we need members. Member's dues help fund the organization by helping pay for newsletters and other efforts. In our organization, members are there to help others and provide points of contact in special situations. If you are not already a member, we hope you will consider becoming a member. We have several levels of membership available. To become a member or renew your membership, complete the following and return with your payment to our PO Box listed on the back page.

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 – Lorri Buddenberg, 501-450-3192
Mountain Home, 1^st Saturday – Vann Smith, PhD, 870-445-5941
Jonesboro – Angie Schmidt, 870-932-0440
Hot Springs – Bill Hartley, 501-525-8463
Bentenville – Rene Boucher - 479-271-7764

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

Brain Injury Association of Arkansas
PO Box 26236
Little Rock AR 72221-6236