Save the Date!
BIAPA Annual Conference
June 27-28, 2023
Lancaster, Marriott - Lancaster, PA

Call for Presentations and Posters

The Presentation Proposal deadline for BIAPA's annual conference in June 2023 has been extended. Proposals must be submitted with all required information and received no later than 5:00 pm on Friday, December 16, 2022.

The submission forms are available to download below.

2023_BIAPA_Call_for_Presentations.pdf
Additional_Presenter_Fillable_PDF.pdf
2023_BIAPA_Call_for_Presentations.docx

Poster Proposals must be submitted with all required information and received no later than 12:00 Noon on Friday, January 13, 2023.

2023-BIAPA-Call-for-Posters.pdf
2023-BIAPA-Call-for-Posters-Fillable-PDF.pdf
2023-BIAPA-Call-for-Posters.docx

Join us for the what promises to be a great conference!

For more information, please contact Sandra Powell at admin@biapa.org or 833-242-7248.

Tips for managing the holidays with brain injury

Excerpt from an article on BrainLine.org. The full article is available 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 properly and drink water
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

Holiday Candy Sales Benefit BIAPA

BIAPA is once again partnering with Pittsburgh's renowned Sarris Candies to offer friends of BIAPA the opportunity to enjoy Sarris' legendary candy for the holidays and to benefit BIAPA!

Order candy through the BIAPA website, and Sarris will ship directly to you or to another address for free, with a $5 packaging fee, and donate 25% of all sales to BIAPA! 

The program ends on Thursday, December 15, so place your order soon!

CLICK HERE to order your Sarris candy now & benefit BIAPA.  USE BIAPA GROUP 10-0214

Helmets for the Holidays

The Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania is committed to maximizing the quality of life for people with brain injuries and their families.  BIAPA also provides initiatives focusing on Education and Brain Injury Prevention.

Your gift to Helmets for the Holidays: Give the Gift of Prevention campaign will support this important work, including:

• Brain Injury Resource Line, which offers information about resources that may be of help to people with brain injury or their family. 
• Support groups and much-needed community-building activities for brain injury survivors
• Educational programs about the brain and the impact of brain injury
• Brain Injury Prevention, such as Brain Safety Fairs with free bicycle helmet fittings.

Tribute Gifts
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.

Business Gift Program
If you’re a business and would like to make a gift in honor of clients or colleagues, please email us at admin@biapa.org or call 833-242-7248. We’ll make it easy for you to support BIAPA.  Just make a donation, send us a list of your honorees, and we’ll send them our Helmets for the Holidays bicycling snowman card with a message about your gift and that you’ve recognized them in this way.

Research Opportunity for Individuals
with Brain Injury and Family Members

This article was contributed by Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing

Did you have a TBI more than a year ago? Are you still experiencing problems? We invite you to take part in a study (The HOME Program for individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury and Family Members). This is conducted by Villanova University's M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study occurs in your home. The study's aim is to help persons with TBI manage their symptoms and limitations and to support their family members.

We are seeking participants in Philadelphia, the surrounding counties, and southern NJ. Download our flyer for more information. Please call Jan Dinnella at 610-519-4504 to talk about the study.

Support Group Corner 

The BIAPA statewide virtual support group won't meet at the usual time this month as we're doing something special! We'll be joining a group from the Mind Your Brain Foundation for a Holiday Sing Along.  We hope you'll join us on Tuesday, December 13th at 6:30 pm for this fun event! Here's the link to join us for the sing along: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81407804811

BIAPA will host our first Caregiver Support Group on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 from 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM via Zoom! This will be a monthly, virtual meeting for caregivers across Pennsylvania. The meetings will be an excellent opportunity for caregivers to meet one another, share experiences and discuss topics of unique relevance to their roles. To join this monthly meeting, use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84401395694?pwd=czdaaFZYU0JLZ0lmd0hRZmxuUnVEZz09

A full list of all of Pennsylvania's Brain Injury Support Groups, along with contact information for each, is on the BIAPA website's Support Group Listing Page. We are in the process of updating the information, and while we have done so for most groups, there are still some that we're trying to reach. If you are aware of groups that are meeting either virtually or in-person and are not on our listing, or if you have any updated details about a group on the list, please contact Melanie Morrison morrison@biapa.org so we can let others know about them.