ABI / Health Links

A TBI is caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head or a penetrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain. Not all blows or jolts to the head result in a TBI. The severity of a TBI may range from “mild,” i.e., a brief change in mental status or consciousness to “severe,” i.e., an extended period of unconsciousness or amnesia after the injury. The majority of TBIs that occur each year are concussions or other forms of mild TBI.

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head that can change the way your brain normally works. Concussions can also occur from a fall or a blow to the body that causes the head and brain to move quickly back and forth.

Health care professionals may describe a concussion as a “mild” brain injury because concussions are usually not life-threatening. Even so, their effects can be serious.

Every 19 seconds someone in the United States sustains a traumatic brain injury (TBI). That adds up to 1.7 million people each year. Brain injuries range from mild to moderate to severe. Every injury is different, but when your brain is injured, it can affect everything: your ability to speak, focus, remember, and relate to other people.

BrainLine is a national multimedia project offering information and resources about preventing, treating, and living with TBI. BrainLine includes a series of webcasts, an electronic newsletter, and an extensive outreach campaign in partnership with national organizations concerned about traumatic brain injury.

BrainLine serves anyone whose life has been affected by TBI. That includes people with brain injury, their families, professionals in the field, and anyone else in a position to help prevent or ameliorate the toll of TBI.

Founded in 1980, the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) is the leading national organization serving and representing individuals, families and professionals who are touched by a life-altering, often devastating, traumatic brain injury (TBI). Together with its network of more than 40 chartered state affiliates, as well as hundreds of local chapters and support groups across the country, the BIAA provides information, education and support to assist the 3.17 million Americans currently living with traumatic brain injury and their families.

Fantastic resource of brain injury fact sheets: BIA of Queensland Fact Sheets

Traumatic brain injury is usually the result of a sudden, violent blow to the head — which launches the brain on a collision course with the inside of the skull. This collision can bruise the brain, tear nerve fibers and cause bleeding.

Traumatic brain injury may also be caused by objects such as bullets or even a shattered piece of the skull entering brain tissue.

The severity of traumatic brain injury can vary greatly, depending on the part of the brain affected and the extent of the damage. A mild traumatic brain injury may cause temporary confusion and headache, but a serious one can be fatal.

Neurotrauma (acquired brain or spinal cord injury) is a devastating and costly occurrence in the lives of Ontarians that is largely predictable and preventable. The burden on individuals, families and communities across the province is significant both in terms of human suffering but as well on Ontario’s capacity to be competitive and productive within a global economy.

Neurotrauma injuries impact over half a million Ontarians and create a cost burden to the province in the order of $ 2- 3 billion annually.

The Foundation, with funding support from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care works with consumers, researchers, practitioners, policy and decision makers to create not only a research agenda but a knowledge mobilization agenda to create the necessary changes to reduce and/or eliminate this devastating injury and to improve the quality of life for those Ontarians living a neurotrauma injury.