March- Brain Injury Awareness Month
With the calendar flip each March, I receive a couple of reminders. First, and probably most important to remember as he is my boss, it’s my dad’s birthday the first of the month! Second, whether from the unique programming at KBIC or all the green ribbons on my social media feeds, along with improving weather; March means Brain Injury Awareness Month! With brain injury often called a hidden epidemic or the invisible disability, Brain Injury Awareness Month, held each March, was established in 1980 by the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) to educate the public on the causes, prevalence, and wide reaching impact of brain injuries. Originally intended at filling a void in societal knowledge, each March highlights research, prevention and aids available to brain injury survivors, their families, and caregivers.
The phrase, “You never think about (insert noun), until it’s all you think about.”, seems so cliché and almost manufactured that I hesitate to mention it. However, the applicability to brain injury as a survivor for approaching twenty years, can’t be understated. Despite having two grandfathers who had survived strokes, which is a form of acquired brain injury (ABI), had you asked me in early 2006 “If I knew any brain injury survivors?”, I would have probably responded “No”. Fast forward twenty years and even without considering the Krempels Brain Injury Center members that have come to be family, I seem to cross paths with at least a handful of survivors each week. Sadly, brain injury seems to be everywhere with the gains in medicine and increased access to treatment increasing survival from incidents that were fatal in the past leaving many living with BI. In fact, Rand reports that since 2000 over 500k US service members have been diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury.
Some of these injuries are preventable which makes organizations like ThinkFirst so imperative. After all, I believe it was that wise American founder Ben Franklin who said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” That said, with our longer lifespans and the frenetic pace of modern life, the possibility of brain injury is a material concern which although possible to minimize, can’t be eliminated. Equally as important as working to prevent brain injury is enriching the lives of survivors and fostering “A New Life After Brain Injury”, where Krempels Brain Injury Center has been a keystone for countless survivors over more than 25 years since David Krempels’ vision began to take form.
Brain Injury Awareness Month is only 1/12th or just over 8% of the year, for myself and I’m sure many other survivors, awareness is never more than a memory lapse, lost word, or muscle spasm away. I thought about including a flashy graphic to display some shocking stats about brain injury in this post, but thought that one sentence containing two stats could work: Every 9 seconds an American is brain injured or almost 3 million people annually. While I can only speak for myself, I’d say taking 8% of the year to focus on learning about this “Hidden Epidemic” is time well spent! After all to quote Lee Harvey, a dearly missed KBIC member who passed 7/16/24, “If you know a brain injury survivor, you know ‘one’ brain injury survivor!”
Over the last 7,200 days since 7/4/06 (I googled it!) my knowledge, and I hope effectiveness of living with my own brain injury has increased with the amazing supports I’ve been blessed with. However, only the surface has been scratched! I’m incredibly grateful for this month to raise awareness of this shockingly prevalent injury. After all, Lee’s words remind me that I still have a lot to learn: But, don’t we all?