the brain injury alliance of new jersey i've been with the alliance that a year and a half now and so far i managed the website you'll see my name on a lot of press releases anytime you want to visit our facebook twitter any of our social media sites out there the one giving you that information you know what exactly is the vision and mission of the brain injury lines of new jersey and how did it get started so our mission is to support and advocate individuals affected by plane injury and raise public awareness through education and prevention our mission along with the mission and i'm sorry our mission along with the vision is to maximize the quality of life for individuals affected by brain injury and for their families and caregivers and then it's to prevent all preventable preventable injuries and minimize the consequences by any injury that is unavoidable ok out of the alliance for and when they start started in  eighty one by a group of concerned parents it started in a kitchen with about three people and at this point we've grown exponentially to provide kind of a giant are a supports and services for individuals affected well that's amazing now what are some of the services they provide so we have a information and resources hotline that is open monday through friday from nine to five minutes to answer any questions you may have as an individual or a family member or a caregiver no matter what stage are in brain enter it could be you know you were just you just sustained it could be years then as we all know it's kind of a lifelong process that never ends so we're always here to help we also have family support and support coronation so that's direct case management we also have support groups throughout the state almost every county will be able to visit a support group and talk with people who've been through similar experiences aside from that we also have a weeklong recreational camp for individuals impacted over the age of eighteen and if that's not only a social in our creation opportunity it's also an opportunity for respite for caregivers that often give twenty four seven care throughout the year before we get too much further do you want to give the website information the hotline number and other sources are a hotline number is one eight hundred six six  nine four three two three and that's open monday through friday from nine to five if you call us off hours we'll get back to you soon as we can and our website is b i say and dot org you also get referrals like this if someone wants to information on a rural psychologist come a call yet we are not medical professionals we cannot offer specific medical advice but we can help guide you in the right direction for what is unique and and necessary for your injury ok how many people are impacted by brain injury the c d c has it at one point seven million in the united states per  year in new jersey alone that's nine thousand that we know of so that's people that go to the hospital are treated in the emergency room or are hospitalized there's also numbers about that are not included you know people who unfortunately it's a fatal injury there's also individuals that we don't know the you know they aren't going to the emergency room they may not be taking their brain injury seriously enough so the number really isn't known or jobs never done and you're seeing approximately nine thousand a year just in new absolutely so we're going through with the assembly right now having stuck to regulations with sports and working in you know concussion in the community we also have outreach programs for concussion in the classroom and working with educators around the state family so for professionals we have a lot of different education programs actually this friday will have a regional seminar and that's for health and human service professionals we have one of those in north jersey and one in south jersey we also have a professional seminar may eighteenth at monmouth university and it's discussing i mean that the subject is just all over the place as is brain injury there is managed long services there are addiction  brain injury programs it's if anything you can think of really it's helpful for everyone wow so you have a main facility where you kind of post some of these events but then you do offsite most of our office i yeah and we try to reach all the different areas of the state and we also have a fall family conference that we try to make central for those in north central and south jersey to be able to attend you know as follows at the legal center yeah i think it is this year back as far as two thousand and nine two thousand and eight and kind of review any of the subjects we've gone over they're all recorded online you know they're great resources there's also in my eyes are burning of articles as well yeah yeah yeah you're an expert we have  browser library with all different kinds of publications whether that be a novel whether that be information to try to give you guys the best resources to deal with your injuries depending on how did you get connected to brain injury  because i had i had a massive stroke back in august of two thousand and fifteen part of my they are being one of my therapist said i so i saw the fire up for the family conference in the f heals but it never never goes away with a brain injury we never become what we once was we can we can do better we can survive which is like the spartan pin that i'm wearing as if you c you i mean people say you had a planetary i said yeah i don't have a tattoo that says a brain injury but i'll explain to them if they questioned like why do you say survivor because i survived it and i and that's why trevor the other survivors sort of they feel proud of their of their situation but we have chronic conditions to psych you become a diabetic you have a diabetic condition where we have brain injury and we have a prognosis that makes it more difficult to future lives and you have to learn new normal is the new normal you have to accept the new normal which is which is tremendous weight to carry is the frustration that we want to accept on your lives is so hard and it takes time and time give it to someone a first first time of it was stored on fresh respond or that you could sometimes i i have to get i have trouble to articulate explain what my palm saw and i can show the card and my name is richard  system will prevent them from performing regularly and so i'm going to close the store and i'm stumbling around trying to say and sometimes i'll explain and don't have about us that you saying to someone else you had a brain injury helps because you get a lot  feedback when you give that information to them you know patti told us how she became involved with the group richard we know you're on the council and we understand how your injury happened but how did you get connected to the group and what made you get involved to the level participating in attending it is one thing which is what we have all one hundred hundreds of members which would be nice and have a higher attendance but one one is a good number one number is a good number to come but  t and we're left scrambling and one of those examples is camp track and that stands for together and recreation exploration and knowledge and that's our weeklong camp we've just had tremendous support over the past two years after the budget was cut to have it funded by donors because i mean it's one of our most important programs but for a nonprofit organization it's something to keep in mind constantly so do people enjoy have to pay small fees to participate in different activities or conferences are right there or it depends for a fall family conference you know that's free or it's a very minimal fee i think i believe it's like ten dollars right for our professional summer seminars there you know are bigger fees but there are scholarships available and we have a walk for brain injury awareness actually in west windsor every year that will be in october and not yeah that that's a great awareness event it's amazing that's twenty five dollars so we do try to keep online it's a question they're there you can think to see if you're ready to go back to work kind of thing in there it's all kind of questions everything about like your cognitive and visit go like if you get if you're getting enough sleep kind of stuff that's important right that's really important and you need help with this you know and transportation is a big concern for pretty much everybody right i've got the phone call today to set up my claim at my driving class congratulations and thanks but the other thing that's great is like access link right right that is a huge resource for not only people with brain injury but anyone around the state with a disability that may have trouble getting around you know what exactly is that how do people utilize that if they're interested access link is a public transportation system for people with disabilities and i can answer that question specifically about we have information and resource hotline specialists that you can get in contact with the numbers one eight hundred six six nine four three two three and they can answer that question specifically and any others that you may have and you also have that nice resource book yes the brain injury resource guide it's one of our most important resources that we give out to any of our first time caller sister then there's everything  different things that are not covered by people's insurance or that they don't have the ability to pay for such as modifications to the house or different you know a quick minute walking assistance beth tub renovations things like that if i had questions or i didn't know calling you guys you'd be able to direct me to where i could maybe get that information or how i could get still assistance or things like that absolutely even if we can't provide it to you directly will find a way to hopefully get you in touch with the right people that's fantastic to know i mean i think i mean families and people that have anybody who has been affected by brain injury contacting this organization and getting the information is key and medical professionals if you are not sure how to best provide to your patient or your facility isn't utilizing the brain injury alliance as much as they can it's a wonderful resource you should reach out get the information get connected and try to use them in the future honestly and it's also one of the organization that's all throughout the country yes we are part of the national organization which is at the united states brain injury alliance ok there's also the brain injury association of america so most states will have a brain injury program we are part of the alliance ok but anyway if you're from another state you're welcome to call us we'll see what we can do for you and get you in contact with the right people  and so this show airs primarily in mercer county in princeton but it gets them distributed across the state as well so if somebody were to call the main hotline number and they could say i'm in it landed county or i mean bergen county right i'll be able to say here's your local chapter here's who you call usually you need to do right absolutely and you have to keep in mind you know there are also ways that you can prevent injury and we can go into your community so even if you're curious about how your children or your family members can avoid assisting or brain injury driving safety we were working with over sixty schools throughout the state to develop teen saved driving programs and it's been evaluated by chops to produce you know some beneficial results so far as students which is good and as far as like the sports programs but the concussions and the head injuries do you also go into schools for those absolutely our outreach staff is phenomenal their own ways out in the community with our students teaching them about like you said helmet safety concussion in the classroom even students adjusting to brain injury and the struggles that they may encounter you know after sustaining a concussion or brain injury how to work with them will have staff go to meetings you know we've yeah so we're here is fantastic now if someone wanted to donate or get involved and become a volunteer again what's the best way for them to do that they wouldn't call the number they should go on the website is there activation there right they could call it actually our main line which would be seven three two seven four five zero two zero zero zero and we're always open to try to figure out a way to get everyone involved we have some amazing volunteers who are there at our walks throughout our gallo's there are fall family conferences which you may have met a few last time you attended but we're absolutely open to anyone who wants to volunteer or donate now kristen how did you get involved particularly with this you're obviously working there as the communications manager did you kind of lean this way because you had a connection to a brain injury relative friend or did you kind of take the job and then kind of found out that you know that's really the amazing thing about brain injury i got lucky falling into the position because i was interested in nonprofit work only to find out my uncle has sustained a brain injury and i never knew so that really just goes back to how brain injury is the silent epidemic and anyone you know has probably been touched by it maybe if not by themselves a family member or a close friend a coworker or someone in their community and it just really brings around how important it is to start you know taking a bigger and for everyone to take that role in their community to start learning about brain injury so we're getting kind of into the and then we're going to wrap it up in a few minutes before we do i'd like both richard and kristen to patty to say a few words anything that you want possibly we have about three minutes so if you can keep it brief something you want the viewers to know what message you want to leave from me because i want to i want people to realize about the reward that you get when you they get rewarded by helping someone else that this soul is filled so so high up when they're helping someone and and you don't get that maybe when you're counting two or two on the accounting sheet you feel proud you should feel proud of your job but you get a personal feeling when you help someone else and try to do something like that and you get that invisible pat on the back absolutely thank you kristen yeah like we've been discussing today i just think brain injury is something that people don't realize is everywhere around the community there are ways that we can prevent it by going out and teaching the general public awareness is an amazing tool for preventing these types of energy and injuries and if  already sustained an injury and you're looking for supportive please remember that the brain injury alliance is always here to help and if we can't provide you with specific medical advice or find you what you're looking for we can find someone who will  a stroke survivor with a brain injury i found the resources to be wonderful and my husband i get a lot out of the monthly meetings support group meetings is a very valuable tool my i'm glad it's good well i want to thank you both for coming thank you part of our show and sharing this wonderful information with the community and we hope that more people get involved and you can continue to do the great w