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You have selected:Caregiving & Brain Injury

Need FMLA Time Off? Follow This Advice

Increase the likelihood that your employer will grant a request for FMLA leave by following these steps.

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Untangling the Vine of TBI

The greenbrier plant is not what it appears to be. It’s innocent looking while invasive. It comes raging back after you cut it down, and it can choke what’s underneath. If this sounds a little bit like traumatic brain injury, it is.

Caring for a Veteran with TBI: What You Need to Know

Plain-language care information to give you the bottom line on managing traumatic brain injury (TBI) for the Veteran you love.

Caring for a Veteran with PTSD: What Do You Need to Know

Plain-language care information to give you the bottom line on managing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for the Veteran you love.

Caregiver Self Care: Your Emotional Health

Military Caregiving: Emotional Self Care

When challenging things happen, emotional health lets you bounce back and move on. Most of us take emotional and mental health for granted and only focus on it when problems occur. But like physical health, it requires attention to build and maintain.

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TBI Recovery Support Program

DVBIC's TBI Recovery Support Program ensures that service members and their family is supported and connected to appropriate resources as they progress through the entire continuum of care to recovery.

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Taking Care of Yourself While Caring for Others

Coping techniques for caregivers and families who are trying to manage stress, anxiety or sadness, while caring for an injured service member/veteran. Experts provide advice on relaxation and self-care.

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Addressing Family Needs After TBI

Everyone in the family is affected by a brain injury. Your role within the family has changed and the role of your family member with TBI may also have changed. Here are some tips and strategies to assist families during this time of transition.

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A Book for Non-Believers

Concussion and Mild Brain Injury: Not Just Another Headline

This book presents an enlightening array of personal accounts that illustrate the various ways that concussions have impacted people, families, and communities. I found all of them enlightening but, due to space, can only reveal a few quotes that stood out to me...

Caregiving the Caregiver: Five Ways to Help a Friend

I have learned some valuable lessons about watching a dear and loving friend experience a traumatic event and who ultimately became a caregiver without warning. Here are five lessons that I learned while trying to help.

Is Brain Injury to Blame?

As caregivers, we have to tread very delicately in interpreting our loved one’s behavior. When our default assumption is to blame brain injury, we run the risk of creating self-doubt in the survivor.

The Space of Your Grief

One of the distinct markers in the aftermath of my son’s brain injury is the presence of an emotional space I’ve never before experienced called ambiguous grief. For both survivors and family members, it can be challenging to address the path of this type of grief.

My Two Life-Sustaining Questions

In the blink of an eye for our sons, and with an unwelcomed knock on our door for my husband and me, our family changed in a way that we could not even begin to comprehend.

Back at Work

I never wish to glamorize the process of returning to work, nor unfairly claim credit for it. TC was at the helm for most of this journey. With that said, there are a few pieces of wisdom I’ve gathered from the experience...

What Happens to Life When TBI Moves In

In the past ten years, I found myself laughing when I thought of Hugh’s pre-injury days—those glorious days when I thought I was so busy and hectic. Once the dreaded accident phone call came and I rushed to the emergency room, I discovered what busy was all about.

A Fragile Strength

Taylor is still fragile in his recovery, and yet stronger than many can imagine. In that analysis, I also see myself and many others who are navigating the tightrope of brain injury.

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We Can Do Hard Things

Brain injury has been a type of boot camp for our family, a crash course in thickening our skins and tackling struggle head-on. And although none of us signed up for it willingly, I think we can all agree it’s been strenuous and valuable preparation for whatever challenges lie ahead.

NeuroStorm of the Century, Part 3 of 3: A New Way of Life

Navigating through neurostorms is just one of the many challenges we have had to face. Hopefully, by sharing our journey, we can help educate and empower other brain injury survivors and their caregivers.

NeuroStorm of the Century, Part 2 of 3: All Forms of Communication

As weeks and then months went by, the monitors were gradually removed and it became more important for family and friends to communicate with nursing staff regarding Josh's neurostorms.

Pain, Joy, Glory, and Mystery

When a loved one sustains a serious head injury, there is certainly pain and hardship and the list of hardships is varied and long. TBI’s deliver potent cocktails of mental, emotional, physical, and psychological trauma not only to the injured person but also to their families.

Coping with the Imbalance of Giving and Receiving in Caregiving

Some caregivers I know feel as if they are giving to the point of depletion. While some who have sustained a TBI and receive care may feel powerless and resentful with no control. This imbalance on both ends can create friction and despair.

Compassion with a Catch

Immediately following a brain injury, outsiders often reiterate to survivors how grateful they are for that person’s survival and how accepting they plan to b. But when put to the test in everyday life, we quickly discover it’s tough to respond with unwavering compassion.

Five Meaningful Ways to Love the Caregiver in Your Life

As a caregiver who often feels lonely and overwhelmed, I’d like to offer some practical solutions that have been helpful to me.

This Is Your Story

Whether you choose to share your brain injury story publicly or document it privately for yourself, it can be surprisingly therapeutic to seize the narrative of your life. If I had kept my struggle inside, hidden from the world, I don’t know how I ever would have healed and moved on.

Intentions to Light the Way

As caregivers, the people we care for depend on us to be consistent and reasonable, stable and strong. Setting our intentions may be one way of realigning ourselves with our values and goals, so we can continue to give care in a positive way. With that in mind, I’ll share with you what my intentions are for 2017.