Faculty members in the Marshall University College of Health Professions have partnered with the Center for Excellence in Disabilities (CED)at West Virginia University to offer a local support group for those with traumatic brain injuries.
According to a study conducted by the West Virginia University Injury Control Research Center, there are 22,000 new traumatic brain injury cases each year in West Virginia. In addition, there have been 1.3-3.8 million sports-and-recreation-related traumatic brain injuries in the United States each year, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Due to the increasing number of these life-altering injuries, communication disorders professor Dr. Carrie Childers said the Brain Injury Group (BIG) was created to provide support, education and information about services for individuals with brain injuries and the people associated with them.
“My colleague Kelly Rutherford and I have clinical expertise working with individuals who have experienced traumatic brain injury,” Childers said. “We learned the CED had recently received a grant to provide community-based services throughout the state and they were very interested in providing support for the group we were planning. Since then, we have been collaborating with the CED to develop and implement the Brain Injury Group.”
Jennifer Tenney, program manager for the CED’s traumatic brain injury group, said as the state’s designated lead agency on traumatic brain injury services, the CED has specific responsibilities to the federal and state governments regarding service to survivors of traumatic brain injury as they navigate the rough waters after experiencing such an injury.
“We felt that the Cabell County area has a significant need for this type of support group, especially with the location of the VA hospital in the area. We were excited when Dr. Childers and her team reached out to us in regard to starting this group in Huntington,” Tenney said. “The Center for Excellence in Disabilities looks to create strong partnerships with Marshall University on many grant levels, and we feel that working with the university is critical to the success of the support group and any other traumatic brain injury-related work done in Cabell County.”
The Brain Injury Group will have two groups at each meeting: one for individuals with traumatic brain injuries and one for those associated with them. Tenney said she hoped traumatic brain injury survivors and their family members would find the support group to be a place to share ideas, concerns and identify areas for more work to be done. Tenney said, most importantly, this is a place for traumatic brain injury survivors and their support systems to make connections with other families who are experiencing the same issues.
The first support group will meet 6 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 28 at the main branch of the Cabell County Library. Subsequent meetings are scheduled for Feb. 25, March 25 and April 29.
To attend Wednesday’s first meeting, RSVP to Childers at childersca@marshall.edu or by calling 304-696-2984.
For more information on the CED, contact Tenney at jtenney@hsc.wvu.edu or visit http://www.cedwvu.org. To learn more about the programs and services in Marshall’s College of Health Professions. visit www.marshall.edu/cohp.
