What Can You Do For Brain Injury Awareness Month?

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. It is important that people be made aware of the dangers they put themselves in and the risks they take so that they can avoid being included in the statistics of a brain injured survivor. What can you do to help others avoid the pitfalls?

There are many ways you can do your bit to help make people aware. Brain injuries are considered a hidden disability. You can help to bring it out into the open by doing some of the following things.

Start with your workplace. Ask if you can highlight the effects and causes of traumatic brain injuries, acquired brain injuries and concussions. Help your colleagues realize that brain injury is the number one killer and dis-abler of people under the age of forty-four. The incidence is two times greater in the male population.

Make sure that your colleagues know also that these injuries will result in impaired cognitive, physical, emotional and/or behavioural functioning. The social and economic consequences can be devastating not only to the survivor but to his/her family members and caregivers as well as to the entire community.

Perhaps put a container in your office and encourage everyone to donate their change to the local Brain Injury Association. Every penny counts as there is a serious lack of funding for brain injuries.

If you are a survivor or a family member of a survivor, tell everyone you know or meet about the consequences of such an injury and the efforts they can make to avoid suffering a tragedy such as this. What are the causes? They are automobile and motorcycle accidents, sports injuries, falls, strokes, tumours and aneurysms.

The consequences can include short-term memory difficulties, motivational problems, anger issues and many other cognitive-behavioural challenges. You can lessen the chances of getting a brain injury by avoiding high risk behavior, wearing appropriate head gear, eating a healthy diet and ensuring that you are doing everything you can to look after your personal well-being by living a healthy lifestyle.

You can also encourage your state/province and municipal governments to become involved in making people aware of brain injuries. Another idea is to write letters to the editor of your local newspaper. You can ensure that the parents of the children on your son or daughter's sports teams are aware of the seriousness of concussions as well. Until recently most people downplayed concussions.

Hopefully by making people aware of the life altering results of brain injuries, everyone will think seriously before they drink and drive, speed, have their mind on other things when they are behind the wheel of a motor vehicle; will take proper precautions when they are playing sports and if they have suffered a concussion that they will take the time to rest and let the damage repair itself before returning to the sport.

It is important for people to remember that taking risks is not smart. It can be the dumbest thing you ever did. But after the fact is too late to wish you hadn't done it. Be smart now before it's too late. Remember the old saying, 'Better safe than sorry.'