– COVID19 Impact Update –
During these trying and unprecedented times, the BCBIA will attempt, as best as possible, to maintain its strong presence and voice for the brain injury community in BC. With the ability to use Brainstreams.ca as our platform we are able to communicate relevant and up to date issues in regard to brain injury. We will attempt to respond in a timely manner to all questions and enquiries made to Brainstreams.ca.
For information in regards to COVID19 please contact:
Public Health Agency of Canada: 1-833-784-4397
HealthLinkBC (8-1-1) at any time or speak with your BC health care provider.
BCCDC’s website: http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19
The BC Brain Injury Association (BCBIA) Celebrates 40 Years of Service & Forms a Strategic Alliance with the CGB Centre for Traumatic Life Losses
Brainstreams.ca is the official website of the BC Brain Injury Association (BCBIA). We are excited to announce fourty years of service in British Columbia. BCBIA was founded in 1982 and incorporated in 1983.
Throughout the years, BCBIA has been the voice of the brain injury community, evolving from providing direct services to joining forces with the Pacific Coast Brain Injury Conference Society (PCBICS) in 2012, to becoming the provincial resource for online education and networking through Brainstreams.ca.
BCBIA is evolving again. We have formalized a Strategic Alliance with the Constable Gerald Breese Centre for Traumatic Life Losses (CGB) under the leadership of Janelle Breese Biagioni.
For more information on our milestone and the newly formed alliance, check out our blog.
The Journey Ahead
We are pleased to announce a new section of Brainstreams called The Journey Ahead. This project was generously funded by ICBC.
This section is for survivors, family members, friends, and caregivers to learn about brain injury, what it entails, to find suitable and appropriate supports, and to provide information about additional services, funding sources, and other community resources.
Please check out The Journey Ahead and let us know what you think.
ICBC Coverage Concerns Regarding The Enhanced Care Model
The Cridge Centre for the Family Brain Injury Program and the BC Brain Injury Association is most concerned in regard to the issues raised in this article. Innocent crash victims must be fully protected and compensated by ICBC and its Enhanced Care Model. The BCBIA will be bringing this story forward to appropriate authorities at ICBC and those others concerned about the Enhanced Care Model.
Should you or those within your network experience similar, perceived unfair treatment or support from the ICBC Enhanced Care Model, please let us know. Send concerns or issues to: Geoff Sing care of - info@nullbrainstreams.ca.
Click here to read the full article on Jess Holland-Roy's crash and the challenges he is experiencing with ICBC.
ICBC Video Series
To read our blog post and to view the four-part video series funded by ICBC on the Enhanced Care Model, click here.
Featured Resources and Learning
Emerging Issue in Canada - Intimate Partner Violence & Brain Injury (IPV/BI)
Violence between intimate partners is a critical concern in British Columbia and around the world. More than 90,000 Canadians report being victims of domestic violence to the police annually, with women accounting for eight of every 10 of those victims. We don’t know how many other cases go unreported.
Research over the last decade has produced unsettling evidence that at least 75 per cent of victims of intimate partner violence are living with one or more brain injuries due to having been beaten or strangled by a current or previous partner. Thirty per cent of all violent crimes reported to police in Canada involve intimate partner violence, and estimates are that more than 200,000 women a year are receiving brain injuries inflicted by their intimate partners.
This is new information for our communities, province and country. Designated services and supports for people who have experienced a brain injury as a result of domestic violence are virtually non-existent in Canada at this time.
Developing informed services and supports is obviously an urgent aspect of what needs to be done. But there’s an equally urgent need for improved screening, training for professionals, and surmounting a deep-rooted double stigma that stubbornly affects society’s views and actions on the subjects of both domestic violence and brain injury.
As research efforts take hold across Canada on this emerging issue, read more about what is being learned right here in BC through a research partnership between the University of BC and the Kelowna Women's Shelter.
To view a video on this topic, click here.
To view a blog post on IPV/BI, click here.
Important Resource Listings: ABI Toolkit, SoarProject, & CATT
Cultivating Community is Cultivating Kindness
BCBIA was pleased to release a new video on an amazing garden project in Langley at it's AGM on September 15th. The video features the Kreiter family and demonstrates the amazing benefits of creating community.
Cultivating Kindness is the story behind Opportunity Landing, a non-profit society dedicated to developing and maintaining a space for inclusive, accessible community gardens in Langley BC.
To read the full blog post and to watch this beautiful video, click here.
The Faces of Brain Injury
Behind every brain injury diagnosis is a real person. We are pleased to share The Faces of Brain Injury, a series of digital posters sharing a brief snapshot into the lives of brain injury survivors.
To learn more about this project, click here.