First brain injury conference seeks to increase awareness

Organizers want Ventura County's first brain injury conference in Oxnard this month to alert the public to the possibility and consequences of a brain injury and the need for more services.

In recognition of March as Brain Injury Awareness Month, the Ventura County Brain Injury Conference will take place March 21 at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

The Brain Injury Center of Ventura County, St. John's Regional Medical Center, St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital and the Camarillo Health Care District are sponsoring what they hope will become an annual county event.

The conference's purpose is to inform the public of the possibility of sustaining a brain injury, its ramifications and the accommodations that can make life richer and fuller for survivors and their family members, said Joan Moore, executive director of the Brain Injury Center, which was founded by 10 brain injury survivors and their families in 1998.

The Ventura-based center is a nonprofit support and advocacy organization exclusively for brain injury survivors and their families.

Each year, 1.4 million people sustain a brain injury in the United States, according to the Brain Injury Association of America. A person could suffer a brain injury ranging from mild to severe as the result of a fall, motor vehicle accident or blow to the head. A concussion suffered in sports is the most common type of brain injury, the association states on its website. A number of Iraqi war veterans are returning home with brain injuries.

Brain damage can also result from a near drowning, stroke or other medical condition.

Based on an estimate from the Center for Disease Control that 2 percent of the population lives with a brain injury, Ventura County is home to some 16,000 survivors of a brain injury, Moore said.

But last year the center helped fewer than 200 people across the county to access services, which indicates that an overwhelming number of brain injury survivors are underserved or unaware of the center, Moore said.

There are only a couple of support groups for survivors and their family members in Ventura County. One group meets in Ventura and another, on hiatus until the fall, meets in Thousand Oaks. The center recently partnered with the Camarillo Health Care District to form a support group in Camarillo which begins in April.

Experts who work with brain injury survivors say friends and resources, such as medical insurance, that may inundate the injured person in the days, months and first few years after the injury tend to evaporate over time. Information about services available to them is crucial.

Even a small brain impairment could restrict a person's ability to work, maintain relationships and function independently, said neuropsychologist Robert Tomaszewski, a conference speaker.

For information on the brain injury conference or the Brain Injury Center of Ventura County, 1802 Eastman Ave., No. 112, Ventura, call (805) 650-5993, ext. 204.