Brain Injury Australia Inc.
Brain Injury Australia is the national peak advocacy organisation representing the needs of people with an acquired brain injury (ABI), their families and carers. ABI refers to the multiple disabilities arising from any damage to the brain that occurs after birth. Common causes of ABI include accidents, stroke, infection, alcohol and other drug abuse. ABI is common in Australia. Over 600,000 Australians have one. For 9 out of every 10 their ABI was caused by accident or injury. For 2 out of every 3, they acquired their brain injury when before they turned 25.
The consequences of an ABI can be profound, complex and multiple. The physical impairments include epilepsy, paralysis, vision and hearing disturbance, headaches, fatigue, problems with balance and coordination. Many people with an ABI experience cognitive problems, including poor memory and concentration, and a reduced ability to learn, plan and solve problems. Roughly two-thirds of people with an ABI exhibit shifts in behaviour post-injury, including; verbal and physical aggression, poor impulse control and general disinhibition. In that context the psychosocial-emotional problems consequent to ABI can be debilitating.
ABI is 10 times more common than spinal injury and produces, on average, 3 times the level of disability.
Brain Injury Australia represents the life circumstances and needs of Australians with an ABI nationally via our work in federal politics and bureaucracy, through our State and Territory Member organisations and with the help of strategic partners pursuing like-minded aims and objectives. Through and with its Member organisations, Brain Injury Australia advises and lobbies the Australian, State and Territory governments on all policy relating to people with an ABI – in disability services, health, education, employment etc. Brain Injury Australia’s current work includes multi-year public information campaigns devoted to specific ABI populations: the leading cause of death and disability in children who have been abused – inflicted traumatic brain injury, sometimes referred to as "abusive head trauma" or “shaken baby syndrome”; the leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) across all age groups and external causes – falls, due to the ageing of the population; and people with a brain injury in the criminal justice system - as many as 60% of Australia's 30,000 adult prisoners screen positively for traumatic brain injury. The most recent of these campaigns, in partnership with Sports Medicine Australia - is devoted to the most common cause of mild TBI – concussion.
(Brain Injury Australia is a small organisation, reliant almost entirely on Australian Government funding. Its office is located at the Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney, based at Ryde.)
The consequences of an ABI can be profound, complex and multiple. The physical impairments include epilepsy, paralysis, vision and hearing disturbance, headaches, fatigue, problems with balance and coordination. Many people with an ABI experience cognitive problems, including poor memory and concentration, and a reduced ability to learn, plan and solve problems. Roughly two-thirds of people with an ABI exhibit shifts in behaviour post-injury, including; verbal and physical aggression, poor impulse control and general disinhibition. In that context the psychosocial-emotional problems consequent to ABI can be debilitating.
ABI is 10 times more common than spinal injury and produces, on average, 3 times the level of disability.
Brain Injury Australia represents the life circumstances and needs of Australians with an ABI nationally via our work in federal politics and bureaucracy, through our State and Territory Member organisations and with the help of strategic partners pursuing like-minded aims and objectives. Through and with its Member organisations, Brain Injury Australia advises and lobbies the Australian, State and Territory governments on all policy relating to people with an ABI – in disability services, health, education, employment etc. Brain Injury Australia’s current work includes multi-year public information campaigns devoted to specific ABI populations: the leading cause of death and disability in children who have been abused – inflicted traumatic brain injury, sometimes referred to as "abusive head trauma" or “shaken baby syndrome”; the leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) across all age groups and external causes – falls, due to the ageing of the population; and people with a brain injury in the criminal justice system - as many as 60% of Australia's 30,000 adult prisoners screen positively for traumatic brain injury. The most recent of these campaigns, in partnership with Sports Medicine Australia - is devoted to the most common cause of mild TBI – concussion.
(Brain Injury Australia is a small organisation, reliant almost entirely on Australian Government funding. Its office is located at the Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney, based at Ryde.)
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