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The jury is still out on the exact ways that repeated blast injuries affect the brain. Some believe that the blast waves travel through the organs, producing a change in the gray-white matter of the brain. Others believe that blast-related injuries produce a unique pathology while others still think that the pathological signals from these injuries result in behavioral disturbance. But all researchers seem to agree that repeated blast-related injuries affect a person’s brain in the short-term as well as in the long-term with the risk of neurodegenerative disease.

A family member or support person at home plays a key role as part of the treatment plan for a service member or veteran. An adjunct in their loved one’s care, the family member collaborates with the team of providers to help their loved one follow through with appointments, medications, and health regimens. They often serve as the more impartial eyes and ears to their loved one’s challenges and improvements.

Two-week intensive outpatient programs that implement a comprehensive, holistic approach to treatment, The Road Home Program includes two treatment arms for veterans and their families—one for veterans who experience battlefield PTSD, the other for survivors of military sexual trauma. Their data reveal high success rates during the program and in the long-term, post-program.

Originally, the Home Base program focused primarily on the brain injury, itself, of service members and veterans. With time, experience, and research, the program now approaches treating brain injury from a holistic method as other issues affect brain health—neurological, cognitive, and psychological functions—like sleep deprivation, chronic pain, or co-occurring substance abuse. Treating the whole person with an individually tailored plan has provided far better outcome.

There are several misconceptions around brain injury and it is important to dispel them. One is that someone with a TBI cannot get better. Not true; in fact, many, many people with TBI who are engaged in treatment get better and return to full lives. The second issue is the wishful thinking that there is one pill or technology that can cure a TBI. Not true; rather engaging in a series of evidence-based treatments and sticking to one’s treatment regimen is what helps people heal.

Researchers and doctors are learning more about how blast injuries, especially if repetitive and sustained close together, can affect the brain far more significantly than a singular blow to the head as from football, boxing, or a car crash. When treating veterans and service members, clinicians in the Home Base program start by taking an in-depth TBI history starting from childhood to the present. The more they understand the mechanism, frequency, and interval between any sustained injuries, the more pointed their treatment can be.

TBI is a multi-faceted injury that can present physically through headaches, balance, hearing, or vision problems; psychologically through depression or post-traumatic stress; cognitively through memory and attention issues; or all or a combination of these “buckets.” Home Base is a two-week intensive program for veterans and service members that serves as part of their journey to recovery. After the two weeks, case managers help their clients set up the necessary care and services they need in their community and follow their progress.

Dr. Iaccarino shares how suffering a spine injury as a teenager sparked her passion for helping others with brain injury using neurological rehabilitation and recovery, especially veterans and military service members.

A traumatic brain injury or repeated brain traumas can sometimes lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, astrogliosis, or other neurogenerative conditions. Since researchers are still learning about the progression of these diseases, which can stem from repeated TBIs, providers are currently trying to plan and address how to change their model of care to best help veterans and their families in the long term.

Wounded Warrior Project’s Independence Program does not have a protocol to work with service members and their families when they transition home from a clinical facility, but they do have a highly successful formula for independent programing that caters to the individual needs of their clients whether those needs arise from the vet’s neurological trauma or from emotional or psychological challenges that result from that trauma.

How quickly can I get help? How long does mental health treatment take? Dr. Klassen answers your questions about mental health treatment

Connor Martin's brother, veteran and athlete Kevin Ash, returned from his deployments changed. He sought help and his mother fought for him, but they never found what he needed.