Brain Injury Blog | Traumatic Brain Injury TBI

In late breaking news from the United States Capitol, Congress has just approved a $700 billion financial bailout package, which also includes landmark mental health parity legislation (H.R. 1424/S. 558) and dozens of expiring tax breaks for businesses and individuals. Continue Reading »

Also of note this week was the Department of Veterans Affairs’ publication of a Final Rule to revise the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities to provide detailed and updated criteria for evaluating residuals of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Continue Reading »

In response to the fact that no single Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 appropriations bill has been enacted this year, the House passed on Wednesday an omnibus continuing appropriations bill to fund most government programs – including TBI and trauma-related programs - at Fiscal 2008 (last year’s) levels until March 6, 2009. Continue Reading »

BIAA joined several other TBI stakeholders this week in circulating organizational sign-on letters to gather support from other advocacy groups in urging key appropriators to provide increased funding for federal TBI programs. Continue Reading »

As in past years, Congress is not expected to finish appropriations before the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Instead, Congress will most likely need to pass an extended Continuing Resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations to keep the government running into the next fiscal year beginning on October 1. Please click on the “Take Action” button in the upper-right hand corner of this email to urge your elected officials to support increased funding for traumatic brain injury (TBI) programs in the CR, as well as in any final Fiscal Year 2009 funding package.

Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but also, in part, how the brain is able to recreate it.

Read more at the NY Times

Former Staff Sgt. Kevin Owsley is not quite sure what rattled his brain in 2004: the roadside bomb that exploded about a yard from his Humvee or the rocket-propelled grenade that flung him across a road as he walked to a Porta Potti on base six weeks later.

Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/us/26tbi.html

Also this week, although appropriations activity remains stalled in the House, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the fiscal 2009 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs spending bill, containing increased funding for medical research, including TBI research.

The bill allocates $526.8 million for medical research targeted to the veteran population, including research into mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury, polytraumatic physical activities and sensory abilities, such as hearing and vision loss. Continue Reading »

ATLANTA — The elderly fear breaking a hip when they fall, but a government study indicates that hitting their head can also have deadly consequences: Brain injuries account for half of all deaths from falls. Continue Reading »

Progress on appropriations occurred this week in the House of Representatives, as the House Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education Appropriations Subcommittee marked up, and approved by voice vote, its Fiscal 2009 spending bill on Thursday.

Specific details of the bill, including funding levels for several federal TBI-related programs, were not made public, but are expected to emerge next week when the full House Appropriations Committee considers the bill. Continue Reading »