Excerpt from an article on BrainLine.org. The full article can be found here.
Linda W. Arms provides 13 great tips on how to enjoy the holiday season without overdoing it. Linda is a TBI survivor since 2006.
You may remember how your life used to be before your injuries, but you have to move on and appreciate your life today. You can look back with fond memories, but you can also build new ones that do not require you to overdo during the holidays. Here are 13 tips to help navigate this busy season. They are detailed in the article mentioned above: 1. Pace yourself 2. Say "No" 3. Get organized in advance 4. Prioritize 5. Ask for Help 6. Keep things simple 7. Eat 8. Determine how to get where you have to go before you leave 9. Determine how much time you need to get there 10. Determine what you need to take with you and what you are going to wear 11. Determine, in advance, your way out 12. Study the menu on the internet before you go, if you are going to a new restaurant for dinner 13. Try to get a table in a quiet, less busy part of the restaurant
There's still time to be a part of Helmets for the Holidays!
Prevention is at the heart of many of BIAPA's initiatives. For many years Brain Safety Fairs have been a signature part of the Association's prevention program.
These family-friendly events include:
Activities demonstrating about how the brain works
Interactive safety demonstrations
Fitting and distribution of free bicycle helmets to children and adults.
As COVID-19 restrictions ease, BIAPA looks forward to resuming in-person Brain Safety Fairs in 2022.Your donation to Helmets for the Holidays: Give the Gift of Prevention will help BIAPA prepare for those events and to purchase supplies, educational materials and helmets and also train volunteers on proper bike helmet fitting.
If you’d like to make a gift in honor of a friend, family member or colleague, please note that information on our secure donation form, and we'll send our Helmets for the Holidays bicycling snowman card with a message about your gift to the person you've honored.
Thank you for helping us provide children and families with the knowledge and the helmets that can prevent life-long disability or death.
Best wishes for a safe and healthy holiday season!
Project to evaluate providing cognitive rehabilitation treatment through telehealth
The Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute to study the feasibility and satisfaction with cognitive rehabilitation services delivered through a video-conference platform. This project included 27 individuals with traumatic brain injury enrolled in the Pennsylvania Head Injury Program. After 6 months of treatment, they provided feedback through surveys of usability of the TeleRehab system and satisfaction with treatment received through TeleRehab. Therapists also rated the system usability and reported on how the TeleRehab platform supported the delivery of various aspects of treatment.
The first phase of project concluded in July of 2021, and findings support the feasibility and potential benefits of Cognitive Rehabilitation provided via remote delivery. Most participants were able to connect to the video conference platform with only minimal technical assistance. Both clients and therapists found the platform easy to use. In fact, therapists indicated that they were able to accomplish even more than they expected during TeleRehab sessions. Client satisfaction with TeleRehab was also highly rated. Our findings offer strong support for the use of TeleRehab as a cost-effective alternative to home visits, which could expand service access to remote areas. The second phase, currently in process, is a qualitative study to gather detailed information about how therapists used TeleRehab, including treatment tasks afforded by this mechanism of delivery.
This project was conceptualized prior to COVID-19 pandemic ,with a view to expanding access to services for Pennsylvania residents. It took on even more meaning and relevance during this time of barriers to in-person treatment. As a result of this project, the Pennsylvania Department of Health will continue to fund cognitive rehabilitation treatment provided through TeleRehab indefinitely.
Support Group Corner
The BIAPA Statewide Virtual Support group Holiday Edition was a lot of fun! Tracy Yatsko and her husband Chichi led us in a holiday song, we wore ugly Christmas sweaters, and members shared their stories.
Our next Statewide Virtual Support Group will take place on Thursday, January 20 at 5pm. Please email survivorsupport@biapa.org if you would like to be included on the distribution list to receive an invitation and link to the zoom meeting.
A full list of all of Pennsylvania's support groups, with contact information for each, is on the BIAPA website's Support Group Listing Page. If you are aware of groups that are meeting through videoconferencing, please contact Candace Gantt, BIAPA Vice-President, at candace.gannt@verizon.net, so we can let others know about them.
Thank you to our Corporate Partners
Platinum Partners
Gold Partners
Silver Partners
_____________________________________________________________ Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania MAILING ADDRESS 947 Wayne Avenue, No. 110 Chambersburg, PA 17201 Phone/Fax: 833-242-7248
