engage, energize, empower

Brain Injury Affects Everyone

Posted on by Posted in Brain Injury Awareness, Caregiver Matters

Brain injury is not an event or an outcome. It is the start of an often misdiagnosed, misunderstood, under-funded neurological disease. Individuals who sustain brain injuries must have timely access to expert trauma care, specialized rehabilitation, lifelong disease management and individualized services, and supports in order to live healthy, independent and satisfying lives.

When someone suffers a brain injury, the entire family is affected. Studies show that caregivers of people who have suffered a brain injury may experience feelings of burden, distress, anxiety, anger and depression. If you are caring for a partner, spouse, child, relative or close friend with TBI, it is important to recognize how stressful this situation can be. Information about brain injury and support can make a great difference.

Support groups are a great way to find the peer support we believe is so valuable to living a life after brain injury. Support groups are an opportunity for an individual with brain injury to establish a circle of friends, learn new strategies to meet the demands of their daily life, or simply feel that someone finally “gets it.” It’s also an opportunity for caregivers and family members to learn they are not alone either. There are others whose lives have been turned upside down and run through the wringer as a result of the changes that come with persistent challenges resulting from brain injury.

All too often, we meet caregivers who are sleep deprived, no longer eat well or exercise, have more headaches, and push themselves through their own illnesses to provide care for someone they love with a brain injury. All too often, we meet caregivers that had to give up their careers to stay home and provide care. This places an incredible strain on a caregivers health, mental well-being, and family finances beyond any loss of income that occurred due to an individual’s TBI.

If all of this sounds dramatic, it’s because it is dramatic. The need for information, resources, respite care, and support groups for caregivers and families is huge and can be hard to find and often difficult to get to when our caregiver responsibilities are in full swing. On the flip side of the same coin there is a great deal caregivers can do for themselves.

At BEST we stress that individuals with a brain injury can take control of their lives through peer support and education. They can learn new strategies and skills to help them navigate a strange new world. The same is true for caregivers. Some time ago, Brainline.org published a piece, “Choosing The Right Caregiver Support Group.” You can find that article here; http://bit.ly/1LNfXo6. The Brain Injury Association USA has a rich section of their website for caregivers; http://bit.ly/1lOsokg.

Life doesn’t just affect the individual with a brain injury. Brain injury affects everyone.

 

 

Today’s Hero is Tawnya Padilla

Posted on by Posted in Our BEST Stories

Today we celebrate Tawnya Padilla. Tawnya is a hero to all of us at BEST because of her determination and leadership. As President of our Board of Directors she demonstrates how our mission makes a difference in the lives of those with brain injury and their families.

Tawnya sustained a Traumatic Brain injury while working with high risk youth. Tawnya has been a licensed Cosmetologist for over 20 years. When she could no longer return to the work she loved she chose instead to use her passion for natural products and beauty to launch her own business in February 2012. From her own experiences she believes that Meditation, Nature, Vitamins, Faith, and Whole foods are vital for ultimate wellness.

Visit her websites, http://www.emergentdistributing.com and http://bodytreatments.simplybook.me/ to find out more.

This series will run throughout March so email us with information about your hero (admin at brainenergysupportteam.org) and we just might publish your story here and on our Facebook page.

Today’s Hero is Logan Olson

Posted on by Posted in Our BEST Stories

This is our first “Today’s Hero” item. Throughout the month of March we’re going to celebrate the accomplishments of individuals with brain injury. Today we celebrate Logan Olson. Logan is a hero to all of us at BEST because her spirit and determination are truly inspirational.

Logan was 16 when she suffered a heart-attack and fell into a coma leaving her with a traumatic brain injury. After seven months of rehab she was able to feed herself and stand. Her greatest desire was to be able to dress in other than sweats and wear make up again. According to her website she “poured through fashion magazines for alternatives, but came up empty-handed. And that’s when the idea struck: The world needs a magazine for young women with disabilities. A magazine featuring girls like her, with tips on easy-to-handle beauty products and clothes. She envisioned a place where they could share advice on meeting challenges and living well.”

Now, 13 years later Logan is a successful magazine publisher. Check out the website; http://www.loganmagazine.com/. Logan’s passion for fashion is evident in her magazine. She is committed to encouraging teens to celebrate fashion instead of giving up on it.

“Do your makeup still. Do your hair still. Keep living, keep living, keep living!” she says.

This series will run throughout March so email us with information about your hero (admin at brainenergysupportteam.org) and we just might publish your story here and on our Facebook page.

A Letter From Your Brain

Posted on by Posted in Brain Injury Awareness

This item moved me so much I just had to share it with you.

Hello,

I’m glad to see that you are awake! This is your brain talking. I had to find some way to communicate with you. I feel like I barely survived WWIII and am still not quite all in one piece. That’s why I need you. I need you to take care of me.

As time passes and you and I feel better and better, people, even doctors, will tell you that we are fine, “it’s time to get on with life.” That sounds good to me and probably even better to you. But before you go rushing back out into that big wide world, I need you to listen to me, really listen. Don’t shut me out. Don’t tune me out. When I’m getting into trouble I’ll need your help more than I ever have before.

I know that you want to believe that we are going to be the same. I’ll do my best to make that happen. The problem is that too many people in our situation get impatient and try to rush the healing process; or when their brains can’t fully recover they deny it and, instead of adapting, they force their brains to function in ways they are no longer able too. Some people even push their brains until they seize, and worse… I’m scared. I’m afraid that you will do that to me. If you don’t accept me I am lost. We both will be lost.

How can I tell you how much I need you now? I need you to accept me as I am today… not for what I used to be, or what I might be in the future. So many people are so busy looking at what their brains used to do, as if past accomplishments were a magical yardstick to measure present success or failures, that they fail to see how far their brains have come. It’s as if here is shame, or guilt, in being injured. Silly, huh?

Please don’t be embarrassed or feel guilt, or shame, because of me. We are okay. We have made it this far. If you work with me we can make it even further. I can’t say how far. I won’t make any false promises. I can only promise you this, that I will do my best.

What I need you to do is this: because neither of us knows how badly I’ve been hurt (things are still a little foggy for me), or how much I will recover, or how quickly, please go s-l-o-w-l-y when you start back trying to resume your life. If I give you a headache, or make you sick to your stomach, or make you unusually irritable, or confused, or disoriented, or afraid, or make you feel that you are overdoing it, I’m trying to get your attention in the only way I can. Stop and listen to me.

I get exhausted easily since being hurt, and cannot succeed when overworked. I want to succeed as much as you do. I want to be as well as I can be, but I need to do it at a different pace than I could before I got hurt. Help me to help us by paying attention and heeding the messages I send to you.

I will do my part to do my very best to get us back on our feet. I am a little worried though that if I am not exactly the same… you will reject me and may even want to kill us. Other people have wanted to kill their brains, and some people have succeeded. I don’t want to die, and I don’t want you to die.

I want us to live, and breath and be, even if being is not the same as it was. Different may be better. It may be harder too, but I don’t want you to give up. Don’t give up on me. Don’t give up on yourself. Our time here isn’t through yet. There are things that I want to do and I want to try, even if trying has to be done in a different way. It isn’t easy. I have to work very hard, much harder, and I know that you do too. I see people scoff, and misunderstand. I don’t care. What I do care about is that you understand how hard I am working and how much I want to be as good as I can be, but I need you to take good care of us, as well as you can do that.

Don’t be ashamed of me. We are alive. We are still here. I want the chance to try to show you what we are made of. I want to show you the things that are really important in life. We have been given another chance to be better, to learn what is really important. When it is finally time for our final exit I would like to look back and feel good about what we made of us and out of everything that made up our life, including this injury. I cannot do it without you. I cannot do it if you hate me for the way being injured has affected me and our life together. Please try not to be bitter in grief. That would crush me.

Please don’t reject me. There is little I can do without you, without your determination to not give up. Take good care of us and of yourself. I need you very much, especially now.

Love,
your wounded brain

©1996 Stephanie St. Claire

 

Board Approves Management Restructure

Posted on by Posted in BEST Updates

It’s official. The big announcement for today is that the Board approved a management restructure that supports our growth. Penny Condoll has stepped down from the Executive Director position to focus her attention on our peer mentoring program; Project PEER. She will continue to work with support group facilitators and the BISGN team. Gloria Kraegel, of GReat Kreations, has been retained as Interim Executive Director until such time that the Board has chosen a permanent executive. We’re so excited to have thoughtful, committed people engaged in our mission and goals. Congratulations to all! What a great team to kick off this new year!

What is Project PEER

Posted on by Posted in Project Peer

Peer mentoring is a process in which an individual who, as a “veteran” of a life experience, helps another person currently coping with a similar life event and in need of support from a knowledgeable friend. Peer mentoring programs have been developed to aid people with a variety of medical conditions and physical disabilities, and to help their families.  Mentoring programs have been created to assist people with employment, education and community integration.

Over 1.5 million Americans suffer nonfatal traumatic brain injuries each year which do not require hospitalization. An estimated 62.persons out of every 100,000 adults age 15 and over are living in the community with enduring functional impairments due to TBI. In spite of a persistently strong desire to work, persons with TBI continue to experience employment rates that hover around 30%. Nationally, the cost of lost productivity and wages together with the costs associated with care and management of TBI, are estimated to be $22 billion annually.

A peer mentoring program for individuals with brain injury and their families provides an alternative, and much needed, form of support during all phases of adjustment and reintegration into the community. Peer support has been shown to be an effective buffer for stress, in both the individual with brain injury and their families. It has also been shown to increase one’s sense of personal empowerment and self-efficacy.  With appropriate education and specific resources, this translates into successful, valuable lives for both families and individuals living with a brain injury.

The Brain Energy Support Team (BEST) is launching a unique way of empowering both survivors of brain injury and their caregivers. Project PEER, Personal Empowerment (through) Education & Resources, will give individuals with brain injury the opportunity to learn, practice and improve social, business, and daily living skills. More importantly, this program is designed to help participants realize their own potential to embrace leadership and the entrepreneur spirit, and create jobs that are lead by peers.

Project PEER is modeled on a successful Peer Mentoring pilot program developed in New York. While this program did not continue due to lack of funding we believe that helping those involved in Project PEER to develop job skills while engaged in revenue generating activities is the perfect vehicle to not only empower the individual, but create a sustainable program.

Confection Connection and Stitching It Up are two revenue producing activities that will both be valuable avenues for participants to get excited about creating sustainable jobs for themselves and to learn important social and job skills integral to community reintegration and future employment.

Confection Connection is a sales and merchandising opportunity from which all proceeds are used to purchase materials, offer stipends to program participants, and help with BEST’s continued public awareness efforts. Stitching It Up is designed to teach participants business and job skills in a small business setting. Participants work together to plan and produce quilted resource bags for everyone in Washington State that is hospitalized with a TBI. Information and amenities are included in the bags to offer encouragement and resources for families and survivors who have been thrown into the unknown world of traumatic brain injury.

BEST has a history of leading collaborative teams to unified goals.  Project Peer will benefit from, and contribute to, collaborations with other organizations that serve individuals with disabilities and their caregivers.