ORGANIZATION

Everyone – whether he/she is aware of it or not – knows someone who has experienced some form of brain injury The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 5.3 million American children and adults – 2% of the population currently live with disabilities resulting from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). The Brain Injury Association of Oregon is the only state nonprofit that specifically addresses issues faced by 81,423 Oregon children and adults who live with a long-term disability as a result of traumatic brain injury.  Every twenty-two seconds someone in this country sustains a traumatic brain injury.  Each year, one million people are treated and released in hospital emergency rooms for brain injury.  These statistics do not include the incidences of mild TBI, such as concussion, which might well add another one million individuals to this figure.  According to the Center for Disease Control, 6.2 times more people are diagnosed with traumatic brain injury in the United States every year than are diagnosed with HIV-AIDS, breast cancer, spinal chord injury and multiple sclerosis combined and is estimated to cost the U.S. $60 billion a year.  The number of Americans living with brain injury is over 13 times the number living with AIDS; six times the number with HIV/AIDS; nearly twice the number with breast cancer; and nearly 1.5 times the number with Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities combined.

The statistics involving brain injury are increasing even more now that reports show that traumatic brain injuries account for 30% of casualties for those who survive combat in Iraq. Despite the staggering statistics, TBI remains the “silent epidemic” in this country.

Because of faster and more effective emergency care, safer transportation and advances in acute medical care, deaths have been reduced in recent years, and the number of people surviving with functional impairments has increased significantly. Medical knowledge and technology have made great advances against the devastating diseases of the past but have not kept pace with the changing face of American culture.  Higher speeds, harder surfaces, greater firepower, increased use of inline skates and skateboards for transportation and ATVs, not wearing seatbelts, accidents at home or work or not wearing bike helmets; more people living through stroke, aneurysms, drug overdoses, diseases, infections or tumors or lack of oxygen to the brain, and more and more people living in higher concentrations have resulted in a different kind of health problem: the epidemic of brain injury.  In spite of the staggering statistics on the incidence of brain injury, relatively few people are aware that many of these injuries can be prevented.

A traumatic brain injury can cause physical, behavioral and cognitive changes including short-term memory loss, speech impairment, difficulty with judgment, paralysis and other problems. Frequently, individuals experience dramatic changes in life-course, profound disruption in their families, extreme financial hardship and spiraling adverse consequences and challenges.

The personal costs of TBI in human lives, suffering, lost wages and broken families are overwhelming. It is not unusual for a survivor of brain injury to exhaust a million dollars of insurance coverage within five years. The economic impact of brain injury exacts a heavy toll on American-society, exceeding $60 billion a year. In 2000 alone the U.S. Federal dollars allocated per person per year and number of people with these conditions to:  900,000 living with HIV/AIDS, Per person federally allocated $18,111;  4,557,000 living with MR/DD, Per person federally allocated $4,635;3,000,000 living with Breast Cancer, Per person federally allocated $295; and 5,300,000 living with TBI, Per person federally allocated $2.55.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC 2006), in the book “The Incidence and Economic Burden of Injuries in the United States,” direct medical costs and indirect costs such as lost productivity of traumatic brain injury (TBI) totaled an estimated $60 billion in the United States in 2000.   In 2000 alone, the 50 million injuries that required medical treatment will ultimately cost $406 billion over the lifetime.  These total costs, for both fatal and nonfatal injuries, include estimates of $80.2 billion in medical care costs and $326 billion in productivity losses, which include lost wages and the accompanying fringe benefits, as well as the lost ability to perform normal household responsibilities.

The authors also examine medical expenses and productivity losses by gender, age, mechanism of injury, body region and body part injured, and severity.  Findings include:

*    Males account for approximately 70% ($283 billion) of the total costs of injuries.

*    Persons aged 25 to 44 years represent 30% of the U.S. population and 40% ($164 billion) of the total costs of injuries.

*    Motor vehicle and fall injuries account for 22% ($89 billion) and 20% ($81 billion) of the total costs of injuries.

*    Upper extremity and lower extremity injuries each account for 17% ($68 billion) of the total costs of injuries.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the number one cause of death and disability among children and young adults. Motor vehicle crashes, falls, violence and recreational accidents are the major causes of TBI. Often called the “silent epidemic,” brain injury not only affects the individual with the injury, but also has a dramatic impact on family and friends.  Lives can be changed dramatically, in an instant, after a single major auto crash requiring extensive hospitalization and long term care; or slowly, over time, after repeated concussions sustained during friendly sporting events, as each injury may result in chronic dizziness, headaches and fatigue.  It is these individuals and their families and those who might sustain a brain injury in the future that the Brain Injury Association of Oregon, Inc. (BIAOR) has served for the last 22 years.  Our mission, our resources, our services, and our dedicated staff and volunteers are focused on creating a better future through brain injury prevention, research, education and advocacy.

Our community support services provide assistance and education to individuals with traumatic brain injury, their families and support networks.  Our prevention initiatives reach thousands of children and adults to alert them of the possibility of injury and how best to avoid or correct situations that can lead to injury.  Each year, BIAOR provides educational opportunities for medical and rehabilitation professionals.  Working at all levels of government, BIAOR advocates for community based services, research, training, special education, housing, health care, vocational rehabilitation, prevention and the civil rights of people with brain injury to participate fully in everyday American life.