Access to Services for Individuals with Brain Injury
Funded by:
US Health Resources and Services Administration—Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Traumatic Brain Injury Implementation Programs
Project Period:
April 1, 2009 – March 31, 2013
Project Contact:
|
Don Hood |
541-346-0535 |
Project Director/Principal Investigator:
| Ann Glang, Ph.D. |
glanga@wou.edu | 541-346-0594 |
| Laurie Ehlhardt Powell, Ph.D. | ehlhardtl@wou.edu | 541-346-0572 |
Research Team:
| Laura Beck, MLIS |
beckl@wou.edu | 541-346-0598 |
| Don Hood | hoodd@wou.edu | 541-346-0535 |
| Cathy Thomas | thomasc@wou.edu | 541-346-0593 |
Grant Ombudsman:
|
Cathy Chenail |
Toll-free message line: 1-877-872-7246 |
Description:
The state of Oregon received a federal TBI Implementation Partnership grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to improve access to quality services for individuals with brain injury. Oregon Department of Education subcontracts with the Teaching Research Institute to facilitate the program.
Improvements in services will be guided by a needs and resources assessment and by collaboration with state agencies and other statewide organizations, by disseminating information and education to legislators, and through specific targeted systems (including returning military, transitioning youth, and Native American groups).
Quarterly Fact of the Matter briefs will provide evidence-based information on current topics for providers and caregivers of people with brain injury. Past publications include the Family Advocacy Skills Training workbook (available free) and the updated commercially available version, Managing Care and Services after Brain Injury: A workbook for families and caregivers.
Publications:
Hood, D., Lash, M., Glang, A., & Todis, B. (2009). Managing care and services after brain injury: A workbook for families and caregivers. Wake Forest, NC: Lash & Associates.
Hood, D., Todis, B., & Glang, A. (2005). Preparing for life after high school: The next steps. McLean, VA: Brain Injury Association of America.
Hood, D., Todis, B., & Stevens, T. (2005). Twelve months to triple-a service: Community collaboration to make services available, accessible, and appropriate for people with brain injury. (Grant No: 1 H82Mc02491-01-00). Washington, DC: Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
Hood, D., Glang, A., & Lash, M. (2002). Family advocacy skills training. (Grant No:1 MCJ-41TB23-01-0). Washington, DC: Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Available at: https://tbitac.norc.org/
Products
Research briefs: The Fact of the Matter
Project Update
February 28, 2012
We are excited to be working with the Governor’s office to establish a new Governor’s Task Force on Brain Injury. The previous task force focused on legislative change whereas the new group will work on coordinated policies among agencies and organizations that provide services for Oregonians with brain injury. Our hope is to help agencies reduce overlap while filling gaps in service, especially by explicitly including brain injury assistance in the coordinated care system.
Adolescents with TBI face some unique challenges as they leave high school and progress into their adult lives. We have been refining the TBI Transition Manual as we continue to improve the tools that help these young people. Sue Hayes, Transition Manual author and our TBI Team Liaison in Region 2 (Central Oregon), received a grant from the Oregon Association of Vocational Special Needs Personnel (OAVSNP) to enhance the manual and toolkit with video examples of the conversational interview process she uses with students with brain injury. On February 24 and 25, Sue presented some of the video at the OAVSNP conference in Hood River.
Our tenth Fact of the Matter research brief, Attention Challenges Following TBI: Overview and Treatment Strategies, is available on our Publications and Products page.
October 17, 2011
The two most recent Fact of the Matter research-to-practice briefs, TBI and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Overview and Resources and TBI, Alcohol, and Other Drugs: An Overview, are now available on our Publications and Products page.
NASHIA’s (National Association of State Head Injury Administrators) State of the States in Head Injury Meeting was held October 3-6 in Kansas City, MO. Pat Sublette participated in a panel discussion entitled, Educating, training and implementing best practices, and Sherry Stock of the BIA of Oregon moderated the session We all fall down: Older adults and TBI.
The Health System Transformation process, initiated by Governor Kitzhaber and the 2011 Oregon legislature, is changing the way health care services are delivered through the Oregon Health Plan by emphasizing prevention and better management of chronic illnesses. We are working with the directors of various state agencies to ensure that the needs of persons with TBI are considered in the new changes
June 23, 2011
Our first training module, Traumatic Brain Injury: An Overview, focuses on background information for professionals who work with individuals with brain injury. The module takes about 15 minutes to complete, contains a test, and provides a certificate of completion with an 80% passing score. There is no charge for the training. We encourage all agency and organization staff to complete the module.
In June, the MCH grant sent project coordinator, Don Hood, to the Federal Interagency Conference on Traumatic Brain Injury to present on the high school transition pilot project being developed in central Oregon through our grant. Slides from the presentation, “Transitioning Students with TBI from High School into the Community” are available on this website.
April 11, 2011
Since our first MCHB TBI grant in 1997, we have focused our efforts on improving services for individuals with traumatic brain injury through statewide systems change. In 2001, we supported Governor Kitzhaber’s creation of a Task Force. The Governor’s Task Force on Traumatic Brain Injury, established by Executive Order 01-02 in 2001, drafted recommendations in 2003 to improve services for Oregonians with brain injury. The eight recommendations were to:
- Establish the Oregon Brain Injury Commission
- Establish a brain injury fund and make appropriation
- Designate a state lead agency for brain injury
- Establish a Traumatic Brain Injury registry
- Improve agency data collection and reporting of the numbers, characteristics, and outcomes of persons with brain injury being served
- Design and implement a comprehensive program to prevent TBI
- Enhance agency staff education and training
- Ensure a coordinated system for individuals with brain injury and their families to access information and be linked to available services and supports
The above recommendations guided advocacy efforts for the 03, 05, 07, and 09 legislative sessions. These efforts resulted in the passage of several measures beneficial to individuals with brain injuries. With combined efforts of the Brain Injury Association of Oregon and other partners, the following laws were passed:
SB 167 (2005)
Allowed the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide special education on a local, county or regional basis without regard to county boundaries in all areas of the state for children who have traumatic brain injury; and amending ORS 343.236.
Senate Joint Resolution 21 (2007)
Designated March as Brain Injury Awareness Month
SB 381 (2009)
Required health benefit plans, as defined in ORS 743.730, to provide coverage of medically necessary therapy and services for the treatment of traumatic brain injury.
SB 348 (2009)
Required each school district to ensure that coaches receive annual training to learn how to recognize the symptoms of a concussion and how to seek proper medical treatment for a person suspected of having a concussion.
This year, the Task Force is updating the recommendations to help guide statewide efforts to improve services to individuals with brain injury. The Task Force is exploring TBI screening to help identify and better serve certain individuals, writing a white paper for legislators to illustrate the challenges individuals face after brain injury, and increasing training opportunities for agency personnel to improve statewide capacity to serve people with brain injury.
In addition, the Task Force requested the Oregon Health Policy Board to consider three recommendations for a more integrated health system that:
- Provides a continuum of care available to people with brain injury in Oregon
- Fully integrates services for people with brain injury into the new Oregon Health Plan
- Includes continued oversight by a taskforce or commission on brain injury to assist in the prevention and treatment of brain injury
