Brain Injury Australia

Did you know that brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability among victim-survivors of FDSV? It's a silent epidemic that needs urgent attention and support.

From September 24th to 26th, 2024, Brain Injury Australia will host its 9th National Brain Injury Conference at Adelaide Oval. This event is dedicated to raising awareness and advocating for the needs of FDSV victim-survivors with brain injuries.

We’re honoured to welcome one of the world’s foremost researchers in this field, Dr. Eve Valera from Harvard Medical School, who will lead a pre-Conference Workshop and deliver an International Keynote Address. Dr. Valera's groundbreaking research has paved the way for understanding the impact of FDSV on brain health.

She’ll be joined by forensic psychologist Dr. Julienne Long and Associate Professor Michael Buckland from The University of Sydney. Together, they’ll provide invaluable insights into identifying, assessing, and supporting those affected by FDSV-related brain injuries.

This is an essential event for anyone working in FDSV services, healthcare, law enforcement, and beyond.

🔗 For more details and to register, visit: www.braininjuryconference.com.au

The countdown begins for the 2024 Brain Injury Australia Conference in Adelaide on September 24-26, with two full conference days and three pre-event workshops.

This voice of brain injury is a must attend conference with 14 sessions over two days providing delegates with topics including innovations in therapy, sexuality, brain injury in the military, domestic and family violence and mild traumatic brain injury and more.

On the 25th, the joint opening address and international keynote will be presented by Ché Phillips and Bruce Powell with Professor Mark Bayley from the University of Toronto.
The day concludes with the US prize winning film, ‘The Rider’ that follows a cowboy’s struggle following a traumatic brain injury that put an end to his career on the US rodeo circuit. The film stars Brady Jandreau, who suffered a rodeo accident and will join the conference from South Dakota.

On the 26th will be a keynote from Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Eve Valera. And the first resource of its kind will be launched; ‘Tools for Ageing Well with Traumatic Brain Injury’.
A plenary: “Concussion/Mild Traumatic Brain Injury,’ will be facilitated by Professor Bayley. Around 180,000 mild TBIs occur in Australia and these can be difficult to diagnose while symptom management remains a challenge.

For more details go to: [email protected] or PH: 1300 789 845.

Get your tickets here - https://braininjuryconference.com.au/register/

Join us for the 9th National Brain Injury Conference, in partnership with Business Events Adelaide and Government of SA.
📆24th-26th September, 2024
🌏Adelaide Oval, SA
🎟️Register - https://braininjuryconference.com.au/register/

Join us for the 9th National Brain Injury Conference, in partnership with Business Events Adelaide and Government of SA.
📆24th-26th September, 2024
🌏Adelaide Oval, SA
🎟️Register - https://braininjuryconference.com.au/register/

More about Kylie - Kylie Smith is the Director Services at the Lifetime Support Authority (LSA) in South Australia, working with people living with disability after a motor vehicle accident. She has a deep understanding of brain injury and is and is privileged to be able to lead the delivery of person-centred treatment care and support at the LSA. A capable leader with a with clinical qualifications in Health Science and Social Work, Kylie knows acquired disability from both professional and personal experience and has been actively involved at state and national levels to promote genuine inclusion for people with disability. Kylie loves learning from people and is skilled at synthesising experiences to influence wider positive service delivery outcomes.

Join us for the 9th National Brain Injury Conference, in partnership with Business Events Adelaide and Government of SA.
📆24th-26th September, 2024
🌏Adelaide Oval, SA
🎟️Register - https://braininjuryconference.com.au/register/

More about Mark - Professor Mark Bayley is a Professor and Coriat Family Chair in Rehabilitation Innovations at The University of Toronto and Program Medical Director and Physiatrist-in-Chief at the University Health Network-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. He leads large-scale national and international implementation science and knowledge translation research aimed at improving recovery from brain injury, including the International Cognitive (“INCOG”) Rehabilitation Guidelines after Traumatic Brain Injury. His work has redesigned brain injury and stroke rehabilitation systems in Canada.

Join us for the 9th National Brain Injury Conference, in partnership with Business Events Adelaide and Government of SA.
📆24th-26th September, 2024
🌏Adelaide Oval, SA
🎟️Register - https://braininjuryconference.com.au/register/

More about Ché - Ché Phillips sustained a severe Traumatic Brain Injury in 2009, when he fell off a cliff riding a motorbike. Two years later, he returned to work as a physiotherapist and now works with the Community Therapy Team for Medibank's "HealthStrong" on Queensland's Gold Coast.

Join us for the 9th National Brain Injury Conference, in partnership with Business Events Adelaide and Government of SA.

📆24th-26th September, 2024
🌏Adelaide Oval, SA
🎟️Register - https://interpoint.eventsair.com/braininjury2024/bi-registration/Site/Register

More about Nat - Nat Cook has been a Member of Parliament in South Australia since 2014. Before entering politics, she spent nearly 30 years as a nurse in specialty areas including brain injury rehabilitation. After her 17 year-old son, Sam, died in 2008 due to a Traumatic Brain Injury from a one-punch assault, Nat and her husband set up The Sammy D Foundation which has “educated over 180,000 young people about the consequences of violent behaviour, and the risks associated with alcohol and drug misuse".

Join us for the 9th National Brain Injury Conference, in partnership with Business Events Adelaide and Government of SA.

📆24th-26th September, 2024
🌐Adelaide Oval, SA
🎟️Register - https://interpoint.eventsair.com/braininjury2024/bi-registration/Site/Register

More about Nick - Nick Rushworth has been Executive Officer of Brain Injury Australia - the national peak advocacy organisation representing the needs of the 700,000 people living with brain injury, their families and carers – since 2008. He was also President of the Brain Injury Association of New South Wales between 2004 and 2008. In 1996, Nick sustained a severe traumatic brain injury as a result of a bicycle accident.

Before joining Brain Injury Australia in 2008, Nick worked for the Northern Territory Government setting up their new "Office of Disability". Formerly a producer with the Nine Television Network’s “Sunday” program and ABC Radio National, Nick’s journalism has won a number of awards, including a Silver World Medal at the 2003 New York Festival, a National Press Club and TV Week Logie Award. He serves on a variety of governmental and research advisory committees, is a Director of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, and is an Ambassador for the National Organisation for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and for the Queensland Brain Institute’s concussion research. Between 2017 and 2019, he facilitated a “Community of Practice” in brain injury for the National Disability Insurance Agency. In April 2024, Nick was appointed to the Australian Government Medical Research Future Fund’s Traumatic Brain Injury Mission Expert Advisory Panel.

There are still some seats left for Brain Injury Australia's 23rd March 2024 Seminar, which will deliver the essentials in evidence-based best practice for the diagnosis, care and management of concussion/ “mild” Traumatic Brain Injury, featuring - clockwise from top left: Michael Makdissi, Chief Medical Officer for the AFL; Professor John Olver AM, the Victor Smorgon Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine at Epworth HealthCare and Monash University; Jason Chan, Chief Medical Officer for the Melbourne Storm NRL team; Mukesh Haikerwal AC, 19th Federal President of the Australian Medical Association; Professor Vicki Anderson, Director of Clinical Sciences Research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; and Katherine Price Snedaker, Executive Director and Founder of PINK Concussions, an international advocacy organisation for women and girls with brain injury. Download the flyer and register now at; https://www.braininjuryaustralia.org.au/resources/events/seminar-on-concussion-mild-traumatic-brain-injury-23-march-2024/

Brain Injury Australia is hosting a seminar on Concussion/'Mild' Traumatic Brain Injury at The Florey Institute (The University of Melbourne) on March 23. AMAV members receive a 30% discount on registration.

Reference the AMAV discount on your registration form and quote your membership number to claim this offer: bit.ly/brain-injury-seminar

Our online NDIS review survey is now closed!
Thank you everyone who took part in the survey.

The NDIS Review survey will be closing at the end of this week, don't miss out on sharing your experience with the NDIS.
Follow this link to complete the survey: https://ncv.microsoft.com/0vrz4hJcL3
If you have any questions about the survey, please contact us: [email protected]

Have you completed our online survey?
Brain Injury Australia will be providing a summary of the survey responses to the Independent NDIS Review Panel.
Follow this link to complete the survey: https://ncv.microsoft.com/0vrz4hJcL3
If you have any questions about the survey, please contact us: [email protected]

What do you think of the NDIS?
We want to hear about your experience with the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Follow this link to complete the survey: https://ncv.microsoft.com/0vrz4hJcL3
If you have any questions about the survey, please contact us: [email protected]

The Australian Government is reviewing the NDIS “to put people with disability back at the centre of the Scheme”.
They have invited Brain Injury Australia to ask the brain injury community about its experience of the Scheme and how it could be improved.

Brain Injury Australia will provide a summary of the survey responses to the Independent NDIS Review Panel. (The Panel will report to the Australian Government in October. Please complete the survey before 23rd September.)

In keeping with Australian Privacy Principles, you will remain anonymous. You cannot be identified from your responses to this survey.

Complete the survey here: https://ncv.microsoft.com/0vrz4hJcL3
If you have any questions about the survey, please contact us: [email protected]

You're invited to a "Public Forum" on the 5th September in Brisbane on a new Australian and New Zealand Clinical Practice Guideline for the assessment and management of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Persistent Post-Concussion Symptoms (Brain Injury Australia represented people with lived experience of brain injury in the research.)

Has your brain injury affected your emotional health? You can help University of Western Australia researchers improve the rehabilitation and care of the injured. And when you complete a series of questionnaires and go into the draw to win a $100 Visa debit card! Go here; https://uwa.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ag6U1FhpA2adxps

is Associate Investigator on a Medical Research Future Fund project to develop guidelines for physical activity after Traumatic Brain Injury. The researchers need your help by telling them what you like and don't like when getting physically active. Can you help, by completing a short survey? http://tiny.cc/bridges_survey

Brain Injury Australia is Associate Investigator on this Medical Research Future Fund study identifying best practice for managing psychosocial disorders following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Help the researchers help those affected, by answering this survey:

BRAIN INJURY AUSTRALIA (BIA) JOINS FORCES WITH THE BRAIN FOUNDATION - BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK STARTS NEXT MONDAY
Brain Awareness Week - from the 13th to 19th March - is "the global campaign to foster public enthusiasm and support for brain science". Brain Injury Australia is getting more invitations from researchers to represent the interests of people with a brain injury (see the stories about "The Traumatic Brain Injury Mission", below). The Brain Foundation is "dedicated to funding the highest quality Australian research into neurological disorders, diseases, and injuries with the ultimate goal of advancing diagnoses, treatments, and patient outcomes". Go to; https://brainfoundation.org.au/brain-awareness-week/ and join a live webinar, hear from leading neuroscience researchers, listen to patient stories and much more. (Brain Awareness Week is not to be mistaken for Brain Injury Awareness Week - held in the third full week of August, 21st-27th in 2023 - dedicated this year to the many thousands of Australians who've sustained brain injuries due to the coronavirus disease COVID-19.)

2 tomorrow's Department of Social Services' Australia’s Disability Strategy National Forum "...But any and all [government] actions need also to be informed by those places of friction between society and the specifics of individual disabilities...governments who intend staying true to their vows to diversity and inclusion, then disability type – type, not diagnosis - also matters."

"...Brain injury researchers and advocates are calling on governments and GPs to improve concussion education among clinicians and urgently expand resources and services for the thousands of Australians struggling with persistent post concussion symptoms..."

'Kids who haven't been to school for two years': Thousands of Australians miss out on life-changing treatment For up to 30 per cent of people who sustain a concussion, symptoms persist for months or years, with devastating consequences. However, experts say too many Australians are suffering in silence, unable to find or pay for the care they need.

"...Brain Injury Australia published a research report -https://www.braininjuryaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/171213-AFDO-MMNeeds_final.pdf - on the gaps in treatment and information for people experiencing ongoing symptoms. It revealed a waking nightmare: a health system designed for those who make swift and uneventful recoveries, leaving thousands of others to muddle through on their own. While some patients were connected with specialist services early, it found, others were 'treated as outliers or misfits' by clinicians who dismissively attributed their symptoms to 'psychological problems'..."

'I couldn’t remember ever being so exhausted': How banging my head on a shelf changed my life For a significant minority of people who sustain a concussion, symptoms persist for months or years — dimming sparks, derailing careers, pushing relationships and mental health into danger zones.

For your diary? presenting @ American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine 99th Annual Conference 6-11 November. Register: https://lnkd.in/gqZYPJvn

Nearly 1,000 jockeys have died since horseracing began in Australia. Brain injury is the lead cause of death. On 14th Sept Race Club, join OAM - the first and only female jockey to win The Melbourne Cup - for a dinner to raise funds for
Tickets and info. at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brain-injury-australia-fundraising-dinner-tickets-401055406517?fbclid=IwAR24yoHYLN_ZleVMebyAyZGwJCZ76vxdotY2OBtN4usSuclOEuzMbVFvg64

As many as 60 per cent of people who injure their spinal cord also sustain a brain injury. In 2020, Brain Injury Australia (BIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA) committing to "work co-operatively to support the lives of people living with a spinal cord injury and/or brain injury". BIA is backing SCIA's BE A HERO campaign in September. So sign up, choose your 30-minute activity - run, swim, cycle, walk, wheel, or choose another activity, challenge yourself, fundraise and BE A HERO your way to help people with disability. Go to; www.beahero.scia.org.au,

Almost a thousand jockeys have died since horse racing began in Australia. Brain injury is the leading cause of death. On 14th September at Werribee Race Club - 30kms west of Melbourne - Simon Zahra Racing is holding a dinner to raise funds for Brain Injury Australia. For more information, tickets; https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/brain-injury-australia-fundraising-dinner-tickets-401055406517