Go Green for Brain Injury Awareness
Grace Phillips
Ashland Beacon
March is designated as Brain Injury Awareness Month and green is the awareness color. Anyone can suffer a brain injury. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, at least 2.8 million people sustain injuries every year in the United States. To break it down further there are 15,000 Kentuckians every year who suffer a brain injury…that’s an average of 41 people every day!
There are two basic types of brain injuries, traumatic and non-traumatic. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) happens when a sudden, external, physical assault damages the brain. The most common causes of a TBI is from a car accident, sports injuries, falls, or domestic violence. A non-traumatic brain injury occurs because of disease, lack of oxygen, stroke, or a brain tumor.
Every brain injury is different. The person is not their injury. They are a person first and each one needs specialized, individual care to help them become the best version of themselves possible. Nestled in Boyd County is a company that does exactly this. Caring Moore Homes see the individual and work together with many services to help them achieve independence and regain their lives.
Carey Moore has always had a heart for helping those with disabilities. She and her husband have a 17-year-old son who was born at 28 weeks and is blind, autistic, and non-verbal. They started Caleb’s, a non-profit organization for kids with blindness in 2008. They held events where families could bring their children who were blind. They were able to be with other families going through the same thing, build a support system and friendships. Mrs. Moore said, “I noticed some of these kids were graduating high school. Their families were aging, and they had no place to go. After doing a lot of research and finding what would most closely correlate with blindness, we decided to become state certified for brain injuries.”
Many brain injuries cause vision problems, not always total blindness but, impaired vision, trouble with hand/eye coordination as well as other symptoms. Carey continued, “Instead of our people going into nursing homes, we decided to go residential. We wanted to give them a home, a real home. There is such a need for these homes in the community. We have eight residential homes in Boyd County as well as the main facility here in Cannonsburg.” The building there is considered the Adult Day Treatment center where Caring Moore Homes provide their clients with physical, speech and occupational therapy, counseling, and many other services. The facility is open from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., Monday –Friday.
At the Adult Day Treatment, each person has an individual plan of care based on their need. “We look at that individual, talk to the team and ask, what are their needs? Do they need to learn how to write a check? Are they getting a bank account, or are they maybe just trying to relearn the alphabet?” There are different goals for everyone depending on what they hope to achieve. For many clients, it is exactly as the name implies…they are there for the “day” and then return home with their families.
However, some clients who require more specialized care, live in one of the residential homes. These clients have someone with them 24 hours a day to help assist with their needs. Many are learning to feed themselves, walk, get dressed, shower, go to the grocery store and shop from a list, or cook their food… so many things that the everyday person takes for granted. The ultimate goal is to help them return to their lives. Mrs. Moore stated these clients love to help out in the community. Many of them volunteer at churches and non-profits helping put together boxes and bags for the needy and the homeless. She said that a part of their recovery is helping other people.
Nikki Dudley is a speech-language pathologist and commented, “Being at Caring Moore Homes is a lot like coming home. I get to come here and completely be myself, OT can do the same. But, what makes it special is we all get to work together with the client. Our clients may not know I’m speech, or someone else is OT, or PT because we all work together as a family. They become more successful because they pick up that we are all one family. I often think that our clients are the glue that holds us together.”
Kristy Pennington, a Certified Occupational Therapy assistant told me, “Every day I come here, I leave very inspired because these clients inspire me so much.” Krista Mullins, Occupational Therapist continued that thought, “We turn hopeless into hope, can’t into can, and impossible to possible. A lot of them feel defeated, and it’s our job to make them feel undefeated and give them hope.”
Moore went on to say, “About 80% of the clients have been married, had jobs, owned homes, have children and grandchildren…pretty much just like you and I… and one day they just had a horrible day.”
In closing, Moore reminds us that everyone with a brain injury has hopes and dreams and wants to one day be independent again. This is not going to happen overnight; it may take years for some of them to accomplish and some may never achieve complete independence. The support that they receive from friends, family and facilities that provide the needed services will greatly impact their recovery.
Everyone thinks it could never happen to them or their family but that’s not true. We are each just one fall, one car accident, or one stroke away from our entire world being turned upside down. By designating March as Brain Injury Awareness Month, it hopefully will help to take away part of the stigma associated with a brain injury.
So this month when you see the color green…don’t just think of a little leprechaun. Let it remind you of Brain Injury Awareness Month; learn the causes of TBI and ways to keep our brains healthy.