December 2003

The Brain Injury Association of Arkansas’

There are many TBI Survivors who are beyond acute care and most of the available post-acute rehab services. These TBI Survivors are into the next stage of their new "normal" life. Most TBI Survivors, over time, end up with few and often no friends. Recreation and socialization activities are long term needs that are currently not being met in most communities. They are vital components that contribute to a survivor’s quality of life.

A program called "Small Places" was first developed in Alabama in early 1997. The purpose of Small Places (a place where everybody knows your name) is to provide regular recreation and social interaction for TBI Survivors.

The Brain Injury Association of Arkansas will begin a similar program in Little Rock for TBI Survivors who want recreation and social activities. The program will meet twice a month on the first and third Tuesday from 9:30 am until 2:30 pm. The program will meet in the Fellowship Hall of the Central Church of Christ at 6^th & Izard in downtown Little Rock.

There will be a small joining fee and a small participation fee. Members will need to bring their own lunch. The size of the group will be kept small. A volunteer will serve as activity coordinator for the first few months. The program consist of board games, card games and other activities. However, the program will be member-driven, so we will play the games the members want to play.

For more information or an application, call our office (501-374-3585) or send an email to info@brainassociation.org. 

Our normal office hours are 8:30 am until 12:00 pm (noon), Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The office is open at other times by appointment only. Andrew Low, a TBI survivor, volunteers in the office to answer the phone and help with data entry.

Our library is slowly growing. If you have an item to donate, let us know. We will make arrangements to pick it up. Items in our library are available for check out by mail or in person. We usually have only one copy of any particular item so items must be returned within one month. Here are some of the recent additions.

Acceptance Groups for Survivors, A guide for Facilitators, intended for use by rehabilitation professionals who work with survivors of traumatic brain injuries or other conditions resulting in disabilities. The guide is a 24-week program of discussion topics divided into four areas:

(Paperback Book) For more information, www.survivoracceptance.com 

Brain Injury Resource Center, from the Brain Injury Association of America, is a multimedia resource offering hours of information about brain injury. Information is presented through text, video and audio, offering a wide range of information on all aspects of brain injury. This CD is geared toward survivors, family members and others interested in learning more about a brain injury. It should be a part of the library of every hospital. [System requirements: 64 MB of RAM, a minimum of a Pentium processor to work efficiently. Will not run on a MAC. A Windows 9x, NT, 2000 or XP operating system and a CD-ROM drive are necessary.]

BRAIN II Brain Injury Resource and Information Network, from the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, is an instructional programming tool for bridging the knowledge gap between the expertise of psychiatric and rehabilitation fields on coexisting traumatic brain injury and psychiatric disorders. This CD is geared toward mental health professions, psychiatrists, nurses, rehabilitation professionals, and educators.

Heads Up – Brain Injury in Your Practice, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a tool kit that is part of a national initiative to prevent mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and improve clinical management for patients with MTBI. This tool kit, which includes a CD and patient material, is geared to physicians.

Person-Centered Planning, TBI Consumer Report #8, a 4-page publication of the Research & Training Center on Community Integration of Individuals with TBI. An overview of an approach to individualized planning that stresses the need to take into account that each person has different goals, different capabilities, different challenges, and different resources. The Report is based on the workbook, "Moving On." The Report, "Moving On" workbook and Facilitators manual are available online at www.mssm.edu/tbinet. 

TBI Inservice Training Module, a program developed in Kansas, revised in 1996, to assist educators, parents, and other professionals in providing information about traumatic brain injuries to persons who will have direct contact with children and adolescents who have sustained traumatic brain injuries. School personnel must be knowledgeable about this population of students and be trained to deliver the specialized programming that they will require. Includes 3 video tapes with total playing time of 59 minutes.

Legal Rights of the Catastrophically Ill and Injured – A Family Guide, by Joseph L. Romano, Esquire, is a paperback book written in 1996 that deals with many of the legal problems and questions that arise following a traumatic brain injury.

As we hear of other conferences in our area that are brain injury related, we like to pass on that information. Here is one that may be of interest to some of you.

Each year a portion of our Board members are elected at our December Annual General Membership meeting to serve a 3-year term. Board Members and their terms, beginning with those elected this month, are as follows:

In the September 2003 issue of the Messenger we requested the names and addresses of professional that members knew and would recommend to others who were looking for help. We have only received a few name but those names are now available at our web site. If you know someone who should be included in the list, please send their information to our PO Box or send us an email.

Season’s Greetings

Web Site: www.brainassociation.org
Email: info@brainassociation.org