Traumatic Brain Injury

Easterseals and the Brain Plasticity Institute: Working Together

The Issue:

  • Brain Health LogoEach year, an estimated 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
  • TBI is a contributing factor to one third, 30.5 percent, of all injury-related deaths in the United States.
  • About 75 percent of TBIs that occur are concussions or other forms of mild TBI.
  • Children aged 0 to 4 years, older teens aged 15 to 19 years, and adults aged 65 and older are most likely to sustain a TBI.
  • Every year, children aged 0 to 14 years account for almost half a million emergency room visits for TBI.
  • Adults aged 75 and older have the highest rates of TBI-related hospitalization and death.
  • In every age group, TBI rates are higher for males than for females. (Centers for Disease Control of Prevention Web site: http://cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/statistics.html)
  • Among military personnel and veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, post 9/11, almost 20 percent or upward of 360,000 have sustained a TBI. (USA Today, March 5, 2009)

Taking on Traumatic Brain Injury

Easterseals is partnering with the San Francisco-based Brain Plasticity Institute to develop, then determine the effectiveness of, a novel, brain plasticity-based toolset designed to broadly restore impaired functional abilities in individuals with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and associated post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).

Our initial focus is on the several hundred thousand military personnel and veterans, who have incurred TBI, often accompanied by PTSD, serving our nation and our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

Our second focus area includes the millions of individuals with head-injuries and related trauma in the civilian population, who may have enduring deficits from injuries and/or trauma that impact their quality of life.

Our goal is to restore the functional and social capabilities of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans with TBI and accompanying PTSD to help them re-establish a more successful civilian life and then to rapidly extend the practical uses of these programs to the far larger, highneeds brain-injured civilian population.

Help us help scientists and researchers at the Brain Plasticity Institute meet this great human challenge.

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