The truth behind traumatic brain injuries
Local Non-Profit Heads Up for Hope Offers Support for TB! Patients and Their Caregivers
As you may have noticed, behavioral health has become close to topic ”A’.’ in nearly everyone’s mind. From local and network news programming and not-for-profit boardrooms to the kitchen table, discussions of mental health issues are practically ubiquitous. It’s front and center in newspapers and TV, as well as social media. But if you listen, watch, or read carefully enough, it will soon become clear to you that there is one important facet of behavioral health that has been either overlooked entirely or given little more than passing mention in the discussion – Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI.
More often than not, the causes of behavioral health issues are explained to be a result of poverty, race, lack of opportunity, pollution, geography, housing availability, drugs, the environment, family issues, sexual abuse, or any combination thereof. And while those are certainly contributing factors, a traumatic brain injury is rarely if ever put on that list. In fact, TEI is all too often treated as a separate issue altogether. Based on a recent conversation I had with the Board of Directors of Heads up for Hope (HUH), Steve Lucido and Diane Smooke from Singletree, Elizabeth Sullivan who lives in Eagle, Leslie Davis of Edwards, and Minturn’s Dr. Heidi Press, that’s all about to change if they have anything to say about it. HUH is a fairly new local not-for-profit focused solely on brain injury and the devastating effects it can have both on the survivors and their caregivers.