December 2024

Save the Date

2025 BIAPA Annual Conference

Mark Your Calendars!
2025 BIAA National Brain Injury Conference 
& Awareness Day on Capitol Hill

Each year, the Brain Injury Association of America and other key stakeholders host a Brain Injury Awareness Day on Capitol Hill during Brain Injury Awareness Month in March. Advocates from across the United States head to Washington, D.C., with the goal of educating our legislators about the needs of individuals with brain injury and their supporters.  

This year's three-day event event will include a conference at the Hilton Arlington, with free, frequent shuttle service back and forth to the capitol.  The conference fee is $35.  Fee waivers are available for any survivor or caregiver for whom the fee would be a hardship. Please contact Monica Vaccaro for details. vaccaro@biapa.org

The preliminary schedule includes:

• Monday, March 3: Optional pre-conference activities and a social event
• Tuesday, March 4: The National Brain Injury Conference kicks off with a full day of events, including an orientation to the schedule of visits
• Wednesday, March 5: Meet with congressional representatives to advocate for brain injury causes

BIAPA has had a strong representation of survivors, caregivers and professionals in Washington in previous years. If you are interested in learning more about the events, contact Monica Vaccaro vaccaro@biapa.org.  

Call for Posters!

We are accepting poster submissions for BIAPA’s 2025 Annual Conference! This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your innovative work and groundbreaking findings. Don’t miss your chance to connect with other professionals in the field of brain injury, as well as survivors and care partners, during this two-day educational event! 
Extended Submission Deadline: Saturday, February 1, 2025
Click HERE for the poster proposal submission forms

Conference Sponsorship Opportunities

Our mission is to prevent brain injuries and to foster an inclusive community of education, advocacy, support, and research to maximize the quality of life for those with brain injuries and their families.
Partner with us for the conference or the year to support this mission and promote your business to our wide array of professionals, survivors and companies!
Click HERE for more info and to download the sponsorship packet.

Conference Spotlight: Ethics Workshop

Updates on Ethical Practices in 2025: Implications for TBI Rehabilitation
Presenter: Maximillian H. Shmidheiser, PsyD

BIAPA is proud to offer this two-part session at the conference!

In their day-to-day work, clinicians have to make ethical decisions and also to help patients think through their own ethical decisions. This program will review recent scientific developments in the  science of morality, such as Haidt’s moral foundations theory, Greene’s dual process theory and notions of moral  tribes, relevant considerations from affective neuroscience, and other theories dealing with how people make moral  evaluations. The presenter will consider how these thinking patterns can influence how clinicians (and our patients) think through and resolve ethical issues. 

Helmets for the Holidays: Give the Gift of Prevention

Your gift to Helmets for the Holidays will support BIAPA’s work to prevent brain injuries and to support individuals and families that have experienced brain injury.  This includes:

•  Brain Safety Fairs with free bicycle helmet fittings
•  Education programs about the brain and the impact of brain injury
•  Brain Injury Resource Line, which offers information about resources that may be of help to people with brain injury or their family.  
  

A Meaningful Holiday Gift
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 manage your holiday gift-giving and to support BIAPA. Send us a list of your honorees, and we’ll send our Helmets for the Holidays bicycling snowman card with a message that you’ve recognized them with a gift to BIAPA.

Best wishes for a safe and healthy holiday season!

ReDiscover U classes are held on Monday nights at 6 PM ET via Zoom. Use this link to join any of the classes at 6 PM on Mondays.

12/23/24 - Goal Setting for the New Year

12/30/24- Game Night - Salad Bowl Game

1/6/25 - SHARE NIGHT 

1/13/25 - An Introduction to AI (Articial Intelligence)

1/20/25 - Baking with Stacy Yostace

Support Group Corner

To sign up for email alerts for one of BIAPA's virtual groups listed above, follow  this link to complete a brief registration form. 

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 currently updating this information, and while we have done so for most groups, there are still some that we're trying to reach. If you're 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 that we can let others know about them.