Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): A Workshop for Families & Friends.

• June 13, 2012: 6.00 – 9.00 pm
• September 19, 2012: 6.00 – 9.00 pm
• November 14, 2012: 6.00 – 9.00 pm

Location: Room #189, GF Strong Rehab Centre, 4255 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC

Registration: Attendance is free, but advanced registration is required. To register please contact: Sacha Arsenault: sacha.arsenault@vch.ca, 778-875-7469 or Kelly Sharp: kelly.sharp@vch.ca, 604-341-8514.

Download the flyer (PDF).

Understanding Stroke: A Workshop for Families & Friends

• May 9, 2012: 6.00 – 9.00 pm
• October 24, 2012: 6.00 – 9.00 pm
• December 12, 2012: 6.00 – 9.00pm

Location: Room #189, GF Strong Rehab Centre, 4255 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC

Registration: Attendance is free, but advanced registration is required. To register please contact: Sacha Arsenault: sacha.arsenault@vch.ca, 778-875-7469 or Kelly Sharp: kelly.sharp@vch.ca, 604-341-8514.

Download the flyer (PDF).

Building Community Connections: A Workshop for Survivors, Families and Friends

This workshop is facilitated by the Community Intervention Coordinator. The workshop is interactive, with open group discussions, opportunities for sharing and problem solving with others. Survivors and caregivers share their personal journeys and discuss some of the successes and challenges they encountered in returning to the community.

• June 6, 2012: 6.00 – 8.00 pm
• September 12, 2012: 6.00 – 8.00 pm
• November 7, 2012: 6.00 – 8.00 pm

Location: Room #189, GF Strong Rehab Centre, 4255 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC

Registration: Attendance is free, but advanced registration is required. To register please contact: Sacha Arsenault: sacha.arsenault@vch.ca, 778-875-7469 or Kelly Sharp: kelly.sharp@vch.ca, 604-341-8514.

Download the flyer (PDF).

Family Aphasia Group
This workshop offers information and education to family and friends of people living with aphasia. Attendees are asked to share their successes and challenges and will learn how to create more successful and satisfying interactions.

Location: GF Strong Rehab Centre, 4255 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC

Registration: Attendance is free, but advanced registration is required. Please register by calling Dina Collins at: (604) 737-6232.

Download the flyer (PDF)

Watch the series on YouTube here:

• Part 1: http://youtu.be/roD4rbc3xSY
• Part 2: http://youtu.be/HeDxhOxGFxs
• Part 3: http://youtu.be/ZWPbaPC6OBw
• Part 4: http://youtu.be/0081-L8TcRc

The conference will be attended by delegates from around the world, including brain injured individuals and their families, neurosurgeons, rehabilitation physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers, nurses, case managers and lawyers. This year’s conference will include workshops and speaker sessions presented by leading academic, medical and allied health professionals from around the world. These sessions will focus on cutting-edge  research on brain injury, rehabilitation, long-term recovery and lifestyle management.

To view the program, click here.

Webster & Associates at the World Congress

In 2005, Brian presented at the 6th World Congress on Brain Injury in Melbourne, Australia. As our legal team strives to stay on the cusp of brain injury research, particulary as it relates to our clients, their recovery and rehabilitation,  we have consistently sent delegates to this conference over the years. Barbara was due to attend this year’s conference, but has recently had to cancel in light of an upcoming trial at the same time.

The International Brain Injury Association

The International Brain Injury Association (IBIA) is dedicated to the development and support of multidisciplinary medical and clinical professionals, advocates, policy makers and others who work to improve outcomes and opportunities for persons with brain injury. Founded in 1993 , the IBIA was created in response to the growing demand from professionals and advocates throughout the world for collaboration and more information on all aspects of brain injury, from prevention to long-term care issues.

The IBIA works to develop positive relations and interactions between individuals, families, groups, organizations, institutions, diverse cultures and nations. The IBIA strives to provide international leadership for creative solutions to the issues associated with brain injury.

“Behavioral Challenges After Brain Injury” (PDF) is one such resource that informs people with brain injuries, their families, and caregivers about the kinds of behavioral challenges they may face, while also offering practical ways to address these challenges.*

Find this and other great resources on the Brain Injury Association of America website www.biausa.org.

*Please note that while some of the materials referenced on biausa.org are intended for an American audience, the material in general is useful and applicable to anyone affected by brain injury.

The After the Crash performance group are one of the keynote presenters at Pacific Coast Brain Injury Conference (Feb 15-17, 2012) who have agreed to put on an additional, free, performance at GF Strong on Tuesday February 14, 2012 at 11.30am.

What is the play about?
While the story of After the Crash is fictional, each situation or scene in the play is based on real events and situations.

Elliot is a young professional who has suffered a traumatic brain injury. Because of this experience, he is faced with the challenge of rebuilding his life and his relationships, and the people around him play an important role in his struggle towards recovery.

How was the play developed?
Originally developed by the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the University of Toronto, it is a unique synthesis of research and art derived from focus group research with brain injury survivors, their family members and health care providers to learn about their experiences.

Who is this play for?
This play is intended for healthcare providers and TBI survivors alike.

Upcoming Performances:

FREE Performance

Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Time: 11.30am
Location: GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre, GF Strong Auditorium, 4255 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC
RSVP: This performance is open to all and while an RSVP is not required, we are interested in knowing who will attend, so please let us know if you plan to attend. Please call 604.734.1313.

Performed at the 22nd Pacific Coast Brain Injury Conference

Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Time: 8.30pm
Location: Pacific Coast Brain Injury Conference, Sheraton Wall Centre, Vancouver, BC
RSVP: Conference registration required

More information about the Ruckus Ensemble perfomance group can be found at www.ruckusensemble.com.

We look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming performances.

Date: February 15-17, 2012,
Location: Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, Vancouver, BC Canada
with satellite conferences held in Victoria and Kamloops.
Registration & conference details: brainstreams.ca

This year’s theme is: Real people with Real Lives: It takes a Village.

Speaker Sessions include:

• After the Crash (Theatre performance)
  Ruckus Ensemble
• A Run to Remember
  David McGuire, Brain Injury Surivior
• Trauma, Rehabilitation and Recovery – It Takes a Village
  Val Lougheed, President, Northern Lights Canada
• Concussions in Sport
  Kerry Goulet and Keith Primeau, Co-founders, stopconcussions.com
• Navigating through the Complexities of Life and Brain Injury
  Lois McElravy, Lessons from Lois
• Neuroplasticity, MRI and Recovery
  Dr. Catherine Mateer, University of Victoria and Dr. Ryan D’Arcy, National Research Council Canada, Captain Trevor and Debbie Greene, Victoria
• Head Injury and Addictions: What is the Causal Relationship?
  Dr. Gabor Maté, Physician, Author, Public Speaker
• Brain Injury Associations: Their Role in the Village
  Terry-Lynn Stone, Executive Director, Kamloops Brain Injury Association

For more details on the speaker sessions, click here.

Register for the 2012 PCBIC at: brainstreams.ca/conference/registration

In our practice approximately 80 to 90% of our cases are resolved before trial. Below, we have listed some of our recent settlements.

• $5,000,000 for a teenager who became a quadriplegic following a serious accident in the BC Interior (Okanagan).
• $2,000,000 + for a woman injured in a single vehicle rollover accident on ice in the Cariboo Region of BC. Her previous lawyer was unaware that there was anything seriously wrong with her. Though her family lived far away, we worked with them and with appropriate professionals to prove that her memory and executive function deficits affected her ability to care for herself, resulting in a very significant settlement.
• $2,000,000 (policy limits) for an older man who suffered quadriplegia (tetraplegia) when the vehicle, in which he was travelling a passenger, was struck in an intersection in the Fraser Valley.
• Policy limits for our client, a left turning vehicle. Our client was the servient driver (did not have the right of way) turning left when struck by the oncoming vehicle. We were able to show, based on the speed that the dominant (straight through with the right of way) driver was travelling and through his admissions upon cross examination, that the driver of the left turning vehicle fairly turned left, believing it was safe to do so, with the other car so far away.

See more of our settlement results and trial achievements in the ‘Achievements’ section of the website.

• Visual scanning
• Spatial perception
• Attention focusing
• Problem solving
• Self-awareness of individual shortcomings and driving abilities (anosognosia)

While many technologies help the physically disabled drive, no technology exists to help drivers overcome the above cognitive impairments to enable safe driving… until now.

In recent months, the Shepherd Centre assistive technology team, the Georgia Tech Sonification Laboratory, and Centrafuse™ have collectively developed an in-vehicle assistive technology (IVAT) – an in-dash, touch screen computer system that uses driver interaction and positive reinforcement to improve and sustain behaviours that are known to increase driver safety.

The use of this type of technology stems from a key observation made by researchers that TBI survivors tend to be better able to remain focused on the driving task in the presence of the evaluator than when driving solo.

In order to replicate the experience of driving with an evaluator, the Shepherd Center team designed a device they called the Electronic Driving Coach (EDC), a three-button box that rests on the driver console. Each of the buttons is labelled to match the three tasks that an individual needs to perform in order to be a safe driver: mirror scanning, speed maintenance, and space monitoring. Every time the individual noticed himself practicing one of these tasks, he or she was to push the corresponding button. The EDC would then give the driver an auditory positive feedback. The researchers found that

“After 3, 6, and 12-month re-evaluations, the individual’s driving skills have been rehabilitated to a much safer level as evidenced by continued evaluations and the discontinuation of traffic violations”

The researchers recognize the limitations posed by the physical in-dash box, and are continuing to evaluate IVAT in both simulators and on-road vehicles with the hope that this technology will not only help TBI survivors, but also other groups of cognitively disabled peoples.

To find out more about driving after a traumatic brain injury, click here.

Read the full, original article here:
“In-Vehicle Assistive Technology (IVAT) for Drivers Who Have Survived a Traumatic Brain Injury” By J. Olsheski, B. Walker, and  J. McCloud

Vote now!

Find out more here.

The injury

Ms. Gilbert was injured in a motor vehicle accident on March 8, 2005 when she was a backseat passenger ejected from a vehicle being driven by an impaired driver.  She was not wearing her seatbelt.  As a result of the accident, she suffered a traumatic brain injury, fractured clavicle and multiple soft tissue injuries.  At issue were Ms. Gilbert’s contributory negligence for getting into a car driven by an impaired driver and not wearing a seatbelt, and the extent of her injuries.

Ms. Gilbert’s credibility

Ms. Gilbert is a 37 year-old First Nations woman who lived much of her life on the Sugarcane Reserve near Williams Lake.  She was exposed to poverty, substance abuse and other tragic circumstances before the accident.  In part because of these circumstances, the credibility and reliability of her evidence, as for the evidence of all witnesses, was scrutinized particularly closely.  Despite being mistaken and careless in her testimony, the judge did not find her to have consciously attempted to mislead the court.  This had a bearing on the contributory negligence and damages components of Ms. Gilbert’s claim.  Ms. Gilbert was not found to be contributory negligent in this case.

The judge’s conclusions

Madam Justice Dickson concluded that Ms. Gilbert sustained a “complicated” mild traumatic brain injury with significant and permanent sequelae as a result of the accident.  The factors she based this finding on are:

1. Ms. Gilbert lost consciousness for at least 20 minutes after the accident and experienced posttraumatic amnesia for over a day.
2. Ms. Gilbert’s brain was vulnerable to injury due to her pre-existing and long-standing pattern of significant substance abuse.
3. Ms. Gilbert’s increased post-accident problems with cognitive processes, including poor memory and focus, executive function and associated personality change, are characteristic of frontal lobe brain injury.
4. There is a strong temporal relationship between Ms. Gilbert’s increased cognitive and executive function problems and the accident in that the increased problems appeared immediately after its occurrence and have persisted ever since.
5. Ms. Gilbert’s increased problems with cognitive function improved for a time, then plateaued, in a pattern typical of partial recovery from brain injury symptoms.
6. The MRI findings show organic change to Ms. Gilbert’s brain, which, given her presentation, I am satisfied was caused by the accident.
7. There is no plausible alternate explanation for the constellation of altered cognitive, executive function and emotional compromises consistently displayed by Ms. Gilbert since the accident.

She preferred the opinion of Ms. Gilbert’s experts with respect to causation of the traumatic brain injury.  Despite Ms. Gilbert’s history, Madam Justice Dickson found that Ms. Gilbert’s increased cognitive, emotional and neurobehavioural problems were related at least in part by the injury, and that the memory loss, low frustration tolerance and poor concentration are primarily connected with her TBI.  Madam Justice Dickson also concluded that Ms. Gilbert suffers from a chronic pain disorder, particularly in her neck, shoulder and back.  She also suffers from cervicogenic headaches.

Relationship between Ms. Gilbert’s past and her injuries from the accident

Discussing the relationship between her past and her injuries from the accident, Dickson J. described her as a “thin skull plaintiff” (taking the plaintiff as she is found, in the already damaged condition that may affect the extent of the loss actually suffered), as opposed to a “crumbling skull plaintiff” (a plaintiff who would have likely suffered the debilitating effects of her damaged condition in any event, regardless of the accident).

The court awarded $200,000 for her pain and suffering, noting particularly her permanent loss of capacity to work and engage emotionally with others in coming to this conclusion.  No amount was deducted for failure to mitigate despite Ms. Gilbert’s failure to follow recommendations made by her family physician.  She could not afford recommended programs and had deteriorated because of her injuries which led to her difficulties in pursuing recommended treatment.

Her past loss of capacity was nominal for any loss of capacity to work between the accident and the trial date but her loss of future earning capacity was much more significant, at $400,000, assuming a present value of an annual loss of $24,000 in earnings to age 65 (28 years).  Madam Justice Dickson took into account the risk that Ms. Gilbert might have continued her substance abuse habit beyond mid-life but also that her health may have improved somewhat, thereby opening up other career options to her.

Future care awards are notoriously difficult as they require prediction about what will happen in the future.  Madam Justice Dickson awarded $200,000 for future care needs based on her conclusion that Ms. Gilbert’s pre-existing mental, physical and emotional condition deteriorated significantly because of the accident; her traumatic brain injury sequelae are serious, debilitating and permanent; and her chronic pain is also debilitating.  What the court did not award was costs for a shared-living arrangement as it was considered to be highly likely that she would be helped and supported by her family with shelter and care for the rest of her life.

The bottom line is that notwithstanding Ms. Gilbert’s very significant history on physical, emotional, mental and psychological fronts, a significant award was warranted for her injuries, earning capacity and care because of the huge impact that her “complex” mild traumatic brain injury and chronic pain symptoms have had and will continue to have on her life.

Everyone has a history; this does not mean that injuries or the effects of those injuries are either without merit or merit less attention.