Welcome to the June 2021 BIAT e-News

Content includes:
Contact BIAT
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Brain Injury Peer Support Groups - July 2021

The Brain Injury Association of Tasmania (BIAT) invite you to attend Brain Injury Peer Support Groups.

New Members Welcome!
The group is for people with brain injury, their families and carers to come together to share, learn and connect with others.

July Theme: Fatigue Management
Mark Lamont will be joining the June group discussions. Mark has over 20 years of experience working with people with brain injury.

To make the June meetings as useful as possible for you, before the meeting please email us with any questions you have about Fatigue Management that you would like Dr Martin to cover in the session.
 

Online Peer Support Group

When: Wednesday 21 July 2021
Time: 10:30am - 12:00 noon
Where: Online via Zoom
T‍heme: Fatigue Management

Register here‍

Download the Flyer

More Information

Please contact Sienna via: 
Email:        admin@biat.org.au
Phone:       1300 242 827

Peer support can be helpful in people's journey towards recovery - for both the individual and their families. People who have 'been there' have knowledge and expertise based on their own lived experience. Sharing this knowledge can help others to understand their own experience and move forward.

The group is open to anyone that has been impacted by an acquired brain injury, including those caused by: stroke, falls, assault, concussion, road crash, infection, brain tumour, hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain), poisoning, and degenerative neurological conditions such as MS etc.
Learn more about the Brain Injury Peer Support Program
The Brain Injury Association of Tasmania (BIAT) applied for, and was successful in obtaining, National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) grant funding to re-badge its Tasmanian ABI (acquired brain injury) Identification Card Program as a National Assistance Card Service and roll it out nationally to people living with brain injury. 
The aim of the National Assistance Card Service is to:
  • assist people with brain injury to feel more confident in everyday social situations;
     
  • reduce the need for card holders to continually explain the effects of their brain injury; and
     
  • increase community understanding of brain injury and its impacts.
The National Assistance Card will be rolled out across Australia to people with brain injury. 

We are planning to launch the Card later this year.
How to Apply Guides will be developed to assist people with the online system.

We are building a new online system for people to apply for a Card. 
People will have the option of including a QR code on their Card that links to further information - written or via video.

A QR Code is a ‘Quick Response’ barcode that, when scanned with a mobile phone, allows the user to quickly access information online.
We have read all the responses from the survey people completed. 

Some of the key findings were:
  • More people would prefer the additional information linked to their QR Code to be in writing rather than via video. 
  • There were mixed views about what the Card should cost; suggestions ranged from $0-$50.
  • Most people said people with NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) funding should be able to use their funding to pay for the Card.
  • Great feedback was received on how to promote and educate people about the card. We will use these ideas to support the process. 
There will be a new website to support the National  Assistance Card - www.nationalassistancecard.com.au
 
People will go to the website to apply for their Card.  They will also be able to get educational resources about the Card from the new website.
People will soon be able to go to the new website to register an Expression of Interest for a National Assistance Card.  They will be contacted when the Service is launched.

Brain Injury in the News 

"Government must ensure people aren’t left struggling for support" writes BIAT executive officer, Deborah Byrne, in this Talking Point article published in The Mercury Newspaper on Friday 7 May 2021.

"The Tasmanian government signed Tasmania up to the NDIS. Its job and responsibility to Tasmanians living with disability did not stop there. The Tasmanian government is legally and morally obligated to ensure no Tasmanian living with disability is worse off under the NDIS. This includes ensuring people with brain injury, already often marginalised, are not further discriminated against through being excluded from the NDIS. With about one in five Tasmanians living with disability, our leaders may want to remember there are five people for each person with disability who care about disability issues." 

Talking Point article by Deborah Byrne, BIAT executive officer, published 7 May 2021 in the Mercury Newspaper.
Read the article in full
Brain Injury Conference

Brain Injury Australia’s 8th National Brain Injury Conference will be held from July 20th to 22nd, 2021 in The Holme Building of the University of Sydney.

Brain Injury Australia’s annual Conference has become one of the premier learning and development events on the disability calendar – driving improvements in services and supports for people living with a brain injury, their families and carers.

For the first time, the Conference will include concurrent sessions and feature three Pre-Conference Workshops, to be held Tuesday 20th July.

Pre-Conference Workshops:

  • Positive Behaviour Support following brain injury
  • Domestic and family violence and brain injury
  • Concussion/ “mild” TBI
BIAT executive officer, Deborah Byrne, will also be presenting at the Conference, discussing:
  • Achieving Better Employment Outcomes for People with Brain Injury: The ‘Who What Where When Why’ Project.
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION CLOSES ON SUNDAY 20TH JUNE 2021

You can register for the conference here.
Learn more
Research Opportunity - Call for Participants
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