The Invisible Brain Injury recounts, in her own words, the experience of Aurora Lassaletta, a clinical psychologist who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) after a traffic accident. Presenting her unique dual perspective as both a patient and a clinician, Aurora highlights the less visible cognitive, emotional and behavioural symptoms common to acquired brain injury (ABI). This moving account showcases Aurora’s growing awareness of her impairments, their manifestation in daily life, how they are perceived, or not, by others and the tools that helped her survive. Each chapter combines Aurora’s perspective with the scientific view of a professional neuropsychologist or physiatrist who provide commentaries on her various symptoms. This book is valuable reading for professionals involved in neurorehabilitation and clinical neuropsychology and for clinical psychology students. It is a must read for ABI survivors, those around them and clinicians, who are all an essential part of the rehabilitation, adjustment and acceptance process involved with ABI.
This book is the cutting edge of knowledge about alternative and effective strategies for recovery from a brain injury. After a brain injury, it can turn one’s world upside down. This book allows readers to understand symptoms of brain injury, how the brain heals, different types of treatment modalities, and how hypnosis influences recover in brain injury.
Life can change in an instant; one bad decision can change the course of a life forever. Everyone deserves a day off, righta much-needed day off that provides a little relief from a very busy schedule. But what if that day changes everything and your life is never the same? My Invisible Injury shares author Katie Pattersons inspiring story of a life now changed after one fateful day, when she took a chance and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Katie chronicles her life since an accident caused not only major trauma to her brain but also severe injuries to her left leg. She recalls three years of recovery, lots of rehabilitation, and countless surgeriesremembering both her good days and bad days. She shares the struggles she encountered throughout her recoverythe months of aggressive therapy, surgeries, and hospitalization. My Invisible Injury illustrates the sheer power of Katies determination to recoverthe strength to overcome her injuries and grow as a person. By learning how to deal with the challenges that are associated with such a devastating injury, Katie has found the way back to her life.
This important book provides a firsthand account of a university professor who experienced traumatic brain injury. It tells the story of Michael Arthur, who had recently accepted a position as vice principal of a new high school. After only two weeks on the job, he was involved in a car accident while driving through an intersection in northern Utah. Through his personal account, he takes the reader into the dark interworkings of his mind as he tries to cope with his new reality. He provides insight into how he learned how to process information and even speak without stumbling on his words while also sharing how his significant relationships suffered as he tried to navigate the restless seas of doubt while trying to circumvent his unyielding symptoms. The book is about finding optimism and gaining insight into the struggles of the brain-injured patient and about trying to understand the perspectives of loved ones who can’t quite grasp the idea of an invisible injury. From the sudden onset of garbled speech to the challenges of processing information, the changing dynamic of the author’s life is highlighted to help family members and healthcare workers better understand.
Intriguing Book of Poetry Published by a Brain Injury Survivor Gray Matters, Brain Injury: The Inside Perspective is a book filled with poetic insights of a woman who lived through a near-fatal brain injury. Her intimate knowledge and sense of humor can help survivors cope, as well as better understand their injuries and themselves. This book gives a personal sense or Inside Perspective of brain injury, thus enabling readers to better understand brain injury survivors. Brain injury occurs around the world in a variety of circumstances; in sports events, motor-vehicle accidents, terrorist attacks & war (and the list goes on)... According to the International Brain Injury Association, head injury is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Thirty percent of the soldiers that have returned from Iraq and are returning from Afghanistan have Traumatic Brain Injuries; more than two percent of the United States' population has sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury. Even with brain injury being so widespread, it is still hard to identify people living with the complications of this “invisible disability.” Ms. Lerner knows that the lack of awareness regarding brain injury makes survivors’ lives quite problematic. Writing Gray Matters was aimed at easing the integration of survivors back into the community. With a creative flair, she informs her readers about brain injury; she strikes a chord by sharing personal changes, loss and challenges, thus giving readers a sense of what it is like to walk in the shoes of a brain injury survivor. The chapters of the book cover topics including: brain injury, the symptoms of injury, rehabilitation, the brain, academic rehab, recreational therapy (including nature & the ocean's healing influence) and brain injury peer support. This book will considerably help brain injury survivors to better understand their injury and themselves, it will also aid them by being better understood by others. Gray Matters has helped family members and friends to better understand their loved ones. This book can also be a great asset to rehab professionals, by giving them a more intimate understanding of the dilemmas of a brain injury; for only when you know what an individual’s problem is, can you treat it. Gray Matters offers an articulate, introspective and sometimes humorous view of what it is like to suffer a near-fatal blow to the head and live with its complications. The author presents a thorough, subjective viewpoint as well as a professional and objective understanding of brain injury. Gray Matters presents a deeper understanding of the inner-workings of the mind and how in many ways, brain injury effects life as we know it.
A traumatic brain injury (TBI)—a brain injury caused by a sudden jolt, blow, or penetrating head trauma that disrupts the function of the brain—can happen to anyone. The effects of a TBI vary from person to person, depending on the force dynamics of injury and the patient's anatomy and physiology. People with TBI-related disabilities and their family members and caregivers need comprehensive, coordinated, person-centered systems of care that attend to their changing needs long after their acute injury has been treated medically. At least 5.3 million Americans are estimated to have a TBI-related disability. The Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) TBI Program, initially authorized by the Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-106) and reauthorized by the Children's Health Act of 2000 is a modest federal program with broad ambitions: a $9 million grants program aimed at motivating states to create systems improvement on behalf of persons with TBI with disabilities and their families. In 2004, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) questioned the effectiveness of the HRSA TBI Program, noting that there had been no regular independent evaluations of the program's effects on TBI patients and their families. To address these concerns, HRSA contracted with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in the spring of 2005 to conduct a study: (1) to assess the impact of the HRSA Program on how state systems are working or failing to work in support of individuals with TBI; and (2) to advise HRSA on how it could improve the program to best serve individuals with TBI and their families. The IOM appointed an 11-member Committee on Traumatic Brain Injury to perform the study. This report presents the IOM Committee on Traumatic Brain Injury's assessment of the HRSA TBI Program's impact and recommendations for improving the program.
The hidden brain is the voice in our ear when we make the most important decisions in our lives—but we’re never aware of it. The hidden brain decides whom we fall in love with and whom we hate. It tells us to vote for the white candidate and convict the dark-skinned defendant, to hire the thin woman but pay her less than the man doing the same job. It can direct us to safety when disaster strikes and move us to extraordinary acts of altruism. But it can also be manipulated to turn an ordinary person into a suicide terrorist or a group of bystanders into a mob. In a series of compulsively readable narratives, Shankar Vedantam journeys through the latest discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science to uncover the darkest corner of our minds and its decisive impact on the choices we make as individuals and as a society. Filled with fascinating characters, dramatic storytelling, and cutting-edge science, this is an engrossing exploration of the secrets our brains keep from us—and how they are revealed.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a significant source of death and permanent disability, contributing to nearly one-third of all injury related deaths in the United States and exacting a profound personal and economic toll. Despite the increased resources that have recently been brought to bear to improve our understanding of TBI, the developme
With the contribution from more than one hundred CNS neurotrauma experts, this book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account on the latest developments in the area of neurotrauma including biomarker studies, experimental models, diagnostic methods, and neurotherapeutic intervention strategies in brain injury research. It discusses neurotrauma mechanisms, biomarker discovery, and neurocognitive and neurobehavioral deficits. Also included are medical interventions and recent neurotherapeutics used in the area of brain injury that have been translated to the area of rehabilitation research. In addition, a section is devoted to models of milder CNS injury, including sports injuries.
