September 26, 2006, 8:45 am

Come Visit Us in Vail!

This week, we’ll be attending and presenting at the Brain Injury Association of Colorado’s 24th Annual Conference in Vail, Colorado. The program is packed full of information-rich talks on brain injury treatment and recovery–two of them presented by NRI staff:

On Friday at 10:30, Dr. Rolf Gainer will present “Suicide and Brain Injury,” a look at the risk factors surrounding TBI.

Friday afternoon, at 3:30, NRI Program Director Pamela Washbourne will present her talk “Attention and Memory Disorders Following TBI.”

If you’re in the area, we encourage you to participate in the conference–it’s always helpful to meet other people who are aware of the same struggles you face as either a professional, a survivor, or a caregiver.

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September 21, 2006, 8:09 am

Taking Care of Your Brain

I have a great aunt in her nineties who is in the throes of dementia: she cannot remember many of the people who love her, she confuses names, places, and dates, and she requires round the clock care and supervision.

Naturally, my mother is concerned about what the twilight years of her own life will look like. This past week, she asked me whether there was anything she could do to retain a healthy brain. Thanks to pioneers like Richard Restak, MD, we now know that brains can continue to improve throughout the course of a lifetime–all it takes is a little exercise of a different sort.

Restak’s book “Mozart’s Brain & The Fighter Pilot: Unleasing Your Brain’s Potential” is packed full of practical ‘thinking’ exercises that promote brain longevity, but there are also lifestyle changes that can be made as well, such as socializing and a balanced diet.

Click here for a CNN article on Keeping Your Brain Healthy

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September 14, 2006, 8:51 am

PVS: Not as vegetative as we thought

Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) is a diagnosis often marked by controversy. Until a few weeks ago, it was presumed that people in a PVS were not conscious of their surrounding, but recent research suggests that people in a PVS can demonstrate willful intent:

To determine whether the patient might exhibit evidence of conscious awareness, they presented her with spoken instructions to imagine herself playing a game of tennis, and to think of herself visiting all the rooms of her house, starting from the front door.

Scans taken when she was asked to play an imaginary game of tennis revealed significant activity in the supplementary motor area, whereas imaging performed during the imaginary house tour lit up sections of the parahippocampal gyrus, the posterior parietal cortex, and the lateral premotor cortex, regions mapped to visuospatial tasks. Again, the responses were similar to those seem with healthy volunteers asked to perform the same tasks.

The investigators asserted that “her decision to cooperate with the authors by imagining particular tasks when asked to do so represents a clear act of intention, which confirmed beyond any doubt that she was consciously aware of herself and her surroundings.”

To read more about the findings, click here.

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September 6, 2006, 6:00 am

Baltimore This Week: NASHIA 2006

This week finds me in Baltimore, where I’ll be attending the 2006 NASHIA Conference. Some of the highlights will include a discussion on what the DVBIC plans to do with all the veterans returning from Iraq. Currently, veterans enjoy an extremely high level of care during their active duty and find themselves in less than desirable circumstances once they are relegated to the VA system.

If you’re a social worker or case manager, I encourage you to add your NASHIA rep to your list of important contacts. When the going gets tough, the NASHIA person may know of options you haven’t tried, or they may simply be able to clarify the outlook for you. It’s important for a NASHIA rep to know what kinds of problems face their state also.

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