North Valley
    Support Group

Group Mission

The North Valley Brain Injury Support Group's mission is to promote undertanding and prevention of TBI through advocacy, research, grants, support groups, lectures that integrate into more community awareness and help.

North Valley Support Group Wants You to Know:

• You are not alone.
• We know what you've been going through.
• There is help and information available.
• We will do our best to see that you get it.

The signs and symptoms of a brain injury can be subtle. These may not appear until days or weeks following the injury or may be missed as people may look fine even though they may act or feel differently. No one can predict how much someone will recover from brain injury. Although science still has much to learn about how to reverse damage from head injuries, today more than ever therapies are available. Prevention is the only cure!

What is Traumatic Brain Injury?

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. The impact on a person and his or her family can be devastating. A blow or jolt to the head can result in a traumatic brain injury (TBI), which can disrupt the function of the brain. The seriousness of such an injury may range from mild to severe.

Brain Injury Awareness

What causes TBI?
The leading causes of TBI are motor vehicle traffic, falls and assaults.

There are more annual incidences of brain injury than multiple sclerosis, spinal chord injuries, HIV/Aids, and breast cancer put together. Currently 5.3 million americans live with brain injuries.
Montana is currently second in the nation per capita incidence of Brain Injury, from mild (concussion) to severe (traumatic). Brain Injury is the "Silent Epedemic" and Prevention the only cure!

Upcoming Events

For information regarding any of these events, please feel free to contact us!

March 2012
15th: Libby Meeting
19th: Eureka Meeting - Subject: Service dogs.
21st: Troy Meeting

The Mysteries of the Brain
Written by Laura Wilde

This March 2012 in recognition of Brain Injury Month, the North Valley Support Groups of Lincoln County is working to spread the word and raise awareness about brain injury prevention, recognition and response to help address this important public health problem. Montana still has the second highest incidents of brain injury!

A brain injury can be caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head or body that causes the head and brain to move quickly back and forth. This sudden movement can literally cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull damaging brain cells and creating chemical changes and or disrupt the function of the consciousness. The enigma of consciousness as you know yourself can be disrupted, effecting the understanding of your own emotions and behaviors depending on the severity and location of the injury. Brain injury can alter how you view yourself. The way a person perceives of themselves is who we are, the personal identity, concepts and beliefs, the consciousness. Also it may be difficult for family, friends and even Dr.'s to understand and cope with this new altered state of consciousness-the personality.

Is there a scientific way to identify the biological processes that constitute consciousness, the self-awareness (beliefs), unity of experience and the awareness of "self-awareness"? At it's core, consciousness is self referential, the self's sense of it's own existence. It is consciousness itself that is trying to explain consciousness. Just like a map of Montana conveys nothing of the grass, dirt and ground, consciousness operates on a level of symbols, that doesn't look much like the workings of nerve cells, microscopic Electra chemical, neurological systems of the brain.

Although these understandings of how the brain processes information, the neural activities, distinctions between attention and subjective impressions has created great advances in the technology of therapies for brain injury. Even with all this progress, the consciousness situation remains popular on the lists of problems. Like the map of Montana remains the same over many many years- it doesn't change with each new pot-hole in a road or street in Libby, Montana remains Montana. If consciousness were merely a map, a convenient shortcut symbol for a complex mass of neurological signaling, perhaps a disruption effecting self-awareness could easily be restored. However at the cellular level the mysteries of the brain still has unanswerable questions and unsolved puzzles for scientists. Consciousness is a truth of a sort that can't be comprehended within a system of molecules, cells and neurons alone. Try thinking of it this way; It is a lot easier to make a million copies of a map of Montana than it is to make a million healthy Montanians. So, North Valley Support Groups ask you to be-aware and help prevent brain injury. Know that brain injury can change consciousness and or your life forever and remember how difficult it can be to recognize and comprehend, the inherent complexities after a brain injury. Because, brain injury does not discriminate it could happen to anyone, any time at any age.

The North Valley Brain Injury Support Group's mission is to promote understanding and prevention of TBI through advocacy, research, grants, support groups, lectures that integrate into more community awareness and help.
Contact: 406-293-6518 or 406-295-9753

April 2012
18th: Troy TBI Support Group Meeting
19th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Libby
May 2012
16th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Troy
17th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Libby
June 2012
20th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Troy
21st: TBI Support Group Meeting in Libby

July 2012
18th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Troy
19th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Libby

August 2012
15th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Troy
16th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Libby

September 2012
19th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Troy
20th: TBI Support Group Meeting in Libby

The Voices of TBI

Stockholm Syndrome and Head Injury
If anyone gives you flack about the lazy, slothful disabled who are happy not to work - tell them to take a flying-fling-at-the-moon.

This must seem like, "A Bolt From the Blue", as you don't know me, but please, please, please read my pages at the link I have sent. I don't know what else to do, so I am using search engines to find addresses. My pages took me 12 months to compile. It was so unpleasant (college and university) that I never wanted to think about it again. It is rather amazing that someone (me) would be so defeated by the system that they would not stand up for their rights. Actually I did at first, but got attacked.

There must be a syndrome similar to , "the Stockholm syndrome" where a kidnap victim starts to identify with their kidnappers. In my case, a TBI survivor starts to identify with the people who are screwing him (me). I have been there - it is really a bad place to be. I started to defend the people that were screwing me.

This is a national issue, though people want to say it is "only" two schools in California. It is about the preconceptions that screwed me and keep screwing other survivors of traumatic accidents. At the risk of seeming morbid, how many brain injury survivors commit suicide because of the way they are treated by society? Is there a reason why this statistic is not collected? Has the suicide victim been to school after their accident?

Please take the time to read over my pages (The website link can be found right after my name). This is what I have come up against. They were expecting me to feel suicidal after they denied me accommodation for my disability. Humans are social creatures. To deny someone socialization with their fellow humans is to torture them (me). TBI survivors are messed with constantly. We are not treated as people. People treat us poorly, we get angry, and they say, "You see. It's the head injury. They need medication." These people take no responsibility for their actions.

We need to form associations. And get the word out. United we stand, divided – they will keep doing to others, what they did to me, over and over.

This system needs to be changed and it won't happen because we want it to change. It will only happen by us making it happen. We have to be vocal. We have to be annoying. We have to be persistent. We will prevail, but it will take time and persistence. We will get justice, but only if we keep making noise.

Anthony
Website Link

2012 NVSG Specialty Calendars for Sale

2012 NVSG Specialty Calendars for sale by donation of $10 or more for each. Made by volunteers and members of NVSG. Seasonal Calendar, meeting dates marked, art, photos by members and activity photos, awareness tips, prevention tips, listed symptoms of possible brain injury for recognition, and more information. What a great gift and support for a local non-profit organization that helps persons in Lincoln County. Thank you ahead of time for your purchase.

Urgent Need for Brain Injured Research Patients

Oculearn, LLC needs research patients for a study to determine the efficacy of using Oculearn's on-line TBI screening and therapy. The research study is being funded by the US Army in hopes of aiding brain injured war fighters recover lost cognitive ability due to a TBI. In return the research patients will receive free in-home therapy.

Go to http://www.oculearntbi.com/OculearnTBIScreening/ResearchInterestLandingPage.aspx
Oculearn is on on-line suite of cognitive screening and therapy products that has been used for treating cognitive deficits in brain injured patients and is currently being research verified using funding from a grant from the US Army.

We have priced Oculearn therapy such that, when used at it's recommended frequency (5 hours per week), the cost works out to about $20 per patient per month.

Oculearn is unique in that the therapy provided through Oculearn is customized. Each patient takes our patented Cognitive Screening which takes about 20 minutes and can be done at any internet-connected computer. The screening sets the stage for each persons therapeutic start point. Once begun, the therapy modules continually adapt in difficulty based on each patients success or failure rate to allow them to have success without making it too easy. We also have several ways to optionally personalize the delivery of the therapeutic modules so that they can incorporate familiar sights and sounds that might enhance the patients ability to improve cognitive function. These include:
a) Pictures of loved ones or cherished items to be used in therapy modules that involve memory.
b) Maps of neighborhoods, roads or floor plans that might be familiar to a patient in therapy modules that involve problem solving by giving or taking directions.
c) Video or audio of encouraging words from a friend or loved one to help motivate and reward each patient through positive reinforcement.

The NVSG thanks all who donate.

The money raised sponsors awareness programs through Lincoln County. Also helps to;

• Supply paper, stamps, copies, and other office items.
• Three support group meetings a month.
• Media and other advertising
• Annual attendance to BIAM state conferences.
• NVSG Annual retreat.
• Purchase of education materials.
• This web site at NVSG.ORG
• And much more.