The following is a guest post from Robert Traister of the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), a Nutcase partner in loving all brains. This is the last of four posts from BIAA this March (Brain Injury Awareness Month), to cover some of the issues BIAA works on all year-round. Flickr Photo Credit: Global Panorama

March 18 was Brain Injury Awareness Day. Each year, the Brain Injury Association of America hosts this event with the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force to bring people with brain injuries to the nation’s capitol to meet with elected officials. This personal interaction lets lawmakers see first hand how people with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and other brain injuries survive and thrive with proper access to care and rehabilitative services.

This day is also an opportunity to thank lawmakers for legislation to continue funding brain injury research and treatment programs. This year BIAA recognized Reps. Bill Pascrell (NJ) and Tom Rooney (FL), co-chairs of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, and Sens. Tom Casey (PA) and Orrin Hatch (UT), for introducing the Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act of 2014 in the House and Senate.

From left: Susan Connors, BIAA president, Senator Tom Casey (PA), and Amy Colberg, BIAA director of government affairs.

The bill reauthorizes existing TBI programs and provides new authority for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to review brain injury management in children, and identify ongoing and potential opportunities for research. Advocacy is just one of the many ways BIAA provides help, hope, and healing to people with brain injuries. Our National Brain Injury Information Center connects people in all 50 states with resources in their communities for support and services (800-444-6443). BIAA’s quarterly magazine THE Challenge! provides people with brain injuries and family caregivers with information on living with brain injury, research, legislation, and events happening in each state.

The Butch Alterman Memorial Webinar Series presents webinars – free of charge – for people with brain injuries and family caregivers on a variety of topics. Recordings of these webinars can be viewed on the BIAA website. here. Through our Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists (ACBIS), BIAA provides education, training, certification, and ongoing resources for professionals who serve the brain injury community. Support from people like you allows BIAA to serve the more than 2.5 million people who survive traumatic brain injuries each year. Thank you for supporting the Brain Injury Association of America.

Don’t forget that if you buy a Nutcase helmet during the month of March, Nutcase will donate $2 from your purchase to BIAA to help us bring help, hope, and healing to over five million Americans living with brain injuries. We’re also matching donations from you (up to $1,000) at bit.ly/biadonation. And this last week of March, with every donation over $25 you have a chance to win one of two Nutcase helmets, winners to be announced next month.