Question:
I just wrote to the PA Head Injury Program and copied my elected official for -- I thought the rest of you might find it helpful to advocate for services in your area. The names have been changed, not to protect the innocent, but to protect me from the vindictive guilty

Answer: I understand that brain-injured PA residents are only eligible for services under this program for three years. While I am grateful for the services I am currently receiving, I feel it is a mistake and a disservice to brain-injured PA residents to cut them off from this program after three years=97especially when the effects of brain injury last for a lifetime and treatment protocols for the harrowing (and physically painful) sequelae of brain injury are still under development. I would suggest that somehow the funding be found to allow brain-injured PA residents to use the three year policy as a guideline rather than a hard and fast rule. I truly fear what will happen to me if I no longer have access to Ms. Ainformation resources. I have neither the family, the physician nor the physical ability myself to find this information=97and the field of brain injury treatment is changing very quickly. As Dr. Nathan Zasler wrote in the Summer/Fall 1995 issue of TBI Challenge! (the Brain Injury Association magazine) "Presently, there are no national protocols in the [brain injury] field for dealing with =91anything=92" yet and that "As a society, there= must be a commitment to providing life-long services through development of appropriate and complete clinical and societal continuums of care." has been especially helpful in researching current treatments for brain injury and informing me of clinical trials for experimental treatments. I would not have this information without her. Unfortunately, like many with "mild" traumatic brain injury, my family flatly refuses to help me in any way. They prefer denial to facing my disability. Although the Brain Injury Association has tentatively recommended that brain-injured survivors have a physiatrist, instead of a family doctor, for a primary care physician, {My incredibly nasty HMO whom I truly despise!} insists that I see a family doctor. My family doctor is a wonderful person, but freely admits that the neurology involved in my case is beyond her. When she has asked {My incredibly nasty HMO whom I truly despise!} for help, they have denied that treatment options are available, ignored her, and/or attempted to professionally and personally humiliate both her and me.