Brain Injury Awareness Month: Looking at TBI from Different Angles

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, and the Brain Injury Association of American encourages everyone to #ChangeYourMind about brain injury. Sometimes, all we need to change our understanding of a disability like traumatic brain injury (TBI) is to learn about it from a different angle. If facts and figures don’t click for you, maybe a video interview with a TBI survivor will connect the dots. If you’re a visual learner, perhaps a comic or infographic will help get the message through. Maybe data tables and charts are your key to understanding the impact of TBI. Here are some examples from the NIDILRR community and elsewhere which may give you a fresh perspective on TBI:

• Break it down to the basics! The NIDILRR-funded Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) offers a collection of TBI factsheets, developed with researchers, on everything from big picture of Understanding TBI to individual topics like Seizures After TBI. You can also Get the Facts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including basic statistics, causes, and risks.
• Show me (and tell me)! The NIDILRR-funded University of Washington TBI Model System Center’s Infocomics series presents the complex and challenging issues TBI survivors and their families can face during recovery and rehabilitation in an engaging storyboard format. The series is available in English and Spanish.
• I want to hear from real people! Learn about TBI from people who have survived TBI and the professionals who helped them recover in these videos from MSKTC. Videos cover changes in memory after TBI, depression, and how relationships can change after TBI.
• Give me all the data! Visit the NIDILRR-funded TBI Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center for facts on the lifetime impact of TBI or tools to interact with data collected by the TBI Model System Centers on TBI and employment, disability rating, and outcomes. The CDC is also an excellent source for TBI data and statistics.
• Get into the research! If you’re ready to dive into the latest research in recovery and rehabilitation after TBI, try these quick reviews of TBI Model Systems research from MSKTC and explore our Research In Focus series. Even more research literature is available from MSKTC’s systematic reviews and databases. Go beyond the TBI Model Systems research and explore REHABDATA for both NIDILRR-funded research and studies funded by other institutes and organizations.

These are just a few examples of different ways to explore TBI. Need more? Contact our information specialists who can point you to additional resources in our collection and in the greater disability and rehabilitation community.