New Life after Brain Injury Blog

Nov12011

Brain Injury Caregiver: November is National Family Caregivers Month

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Did you know that National Family Caregiver Month (NFC Month) is observed every November? The National Family Caregiver Association (NFCA) originated the observance in 1997 to focus attention on the more than 65 million family caregivers who provide 80% of the long-term care services in the US. A study done by AARP showed that family caregivers provide over $350 billion in “free caregiving services” just in care for older adults annually.

Caregivers of persons with brain injury are certainly represented in those statistics.

NFC Month has three main goals:

  1. Designate a public time to thank, support, educate, and advocate for family caregivers.
  2. Speak up about community programs which support family caregivers.
  3. Advocate for stronger public policies which address family caregiving issues and the need for ongoing training and support. Read more »

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Oct112011

Brain Injury Caregiver: After Brain Injury come Havoc, Hope, and Healing

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After brain injury hits your family, getting reliable information you can relate to is essential. In addition to the information provided by hospital staff, you might find that memoirs written by survivors and family caregivers provide hope, valuable tips, ideas, and inspiring stories when you need them most.

On October 24, 2011, I’ll have the privilege of speaking on the panel “Life after Brain Injury: Havoc, Hope, and Healing” with Dixie Coskie and Larry Kerpelman, Ph.D. at the Concord (MA) Festival of Authors. We will share our experiences as family members of children and adults who had brain injuries, and as authors who hope our stories will be beneficial for other families and the public. Read more »

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Brain Injury Caregiver: The Memories I Treasure Now

September 3, 2011
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Those of you who’ve read Professor Cromer Learns to Read: A Couple’s New Life after Brain Injury know that Alan suffered a massive heart attack and cardiac arrest in 1998. The resulting lack of oxygen led to a severe anoxic brain injury. I’ve written a lot about our journey of rehabilitation, reinvention, and reclamation.  Over [...]

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Brain Injury Caregiver: Effective Research and Treatment Partnerships

September 2, 2011
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This week the National Institutes of Health(NIH) released a statement announcing that NIH will partner with the Department of Defense to build a central database on traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The new database will be called the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) database. The purpose of the database is to speed up research [...]

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Brain Injury Caregiver- Ambiguous Loss Complicates Hope and Healing

August 25, 2011
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Brain injury can cause many changes.  There may be temporary or permanent losses directly related to injury impairments. These might include changes in mobility, thinking, memory, or communication skills. We grieve those changes early in treatment, then pursue rehabilitation to regain as much as possible. We all know about the primary losses that happen with [...]

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Brain Injury Caregivers- Post Traumatic Stress Needs Early Treatment

July 28, 2011
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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been in the news recently because so many service members come home traumatized by their battle experiences. Brain injury survivors often have a post-traumatic stress reaction. Family caregivers can also experience trauma and its effects, but we don’t hear much about that. I believe this is an extremely import mental [...]

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Brain injury Caregivers: The Value of Feeling Sorry for Yourself

July 8, 2011
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Brain injury caregivers give their injured family member their all. Every day we give full attention to the cognitive, physical, emotional, and social needs of our loved one. The stress of caregiving is undisputed, and the health hazards abound. Yet, so many caregivers feel guilty if they spend a little time feeling sorry for themselves [...]

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Brain Injury Caregivers- Cultivate Resilience with Life Road Maps- Part Two

June 10, 2011
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I recently participated in the Harvard Medical School course “Building Resilience: The Mind Body Revolution in Health and Healing.” Brain injury caregivers can benefit from reducing stress and cultivating resilience in many ways. The focus of the course was on applying new research about resilience and positive psychology to heal the mind/body mechanisms of chronic [...]

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Brain Injury Caregivers: Cultivate Resilience with Life Road Maps

June 8, 2011
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I recently participated in the wonderful Harvard Medical School course “Building Resilience: The Mind Body Revolution in Health and Healing.” Brain injury caregivers can benefit from reducing stress and cultivating resilience in many ways. The focus of the course was on applying new research about resilience and positive psychology to heal the mind/body mechanisms of [...]

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Brain Injury Caregivers- Revitalize Resilience through Mind Body Health

May 13, 2011
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Family caregivers are experts on stress, responsibility, complicated emotions, and the toll that combination can take on body and mind.  Did you know that there’s a specialty called Mind Body Medicine (MBM) that teaches us ways to reduce the harmful effects of stress on health and well-being? I’ve been involved in the specialty of Mind [...]

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