Publications

Brain Injury Australia's 2011-2012 policy paper on concussion in sport

Tuesday, 28 May 2013 21:36

The “Consensus Statement” from the fourth international conference of the “Concussion in Sport Group” held in Zurich, Switzerland last November acknowledged, for the first time in the Group’s history, that concussion is a “subset of TBI [traumatic brain injury]”. Brain Injury Australia has recently completed a policy paper on concussion in sport for the Australian Government. The paper focuses on Australia's three major "collision" sports - Australian Rules football, rugby league and rugby union - and identified a broad lack of recognition of the injury and its potential seriousness. Its key recommendation was for a national cross-sport education campaign in awareness and best practice assessment and management of concussion, suitable for sports administrators, coaches, trainers, players and the broader community.

Brain Injury Australia is partnering with Sports Medicine Australia to provide a nationwide “grassroots” concussion awareness and education campaign, starting in the second half of 2013. The campaign will be built around Brain Injury Australia’s trademarked "Five Rs" of concussion for the purposes of community education: “Recognise the injury; Removal from play; Referral to a doctor; Rest and then Return to play”.

Download the Executive Summary or Recommendations of Brain Injury Australia's policy paper on concussion in sport. The full policy paper is available here.

Out of Calamity: Stories of Trauma Survivors

Thursday, 01 September 2011 11:48

Out of Calamity: Stories of Trauma Survivors is a book of portraits of people and their families who have experienced and endured severe brain trauma with dignity, courage, humour and resilience. The portraits are about people who are generally unknown and unrecognised in our communities. Coping daily with severe trauma and consequent loss, they provide the finest examples of the human spirit, epitomized by endurance and inventiveness as they reach out to redevelop themselves.

Professor Patrick D McGorry AO, Australian of the Year 2010, describes Out of Calamity as a “wonderful and unique resource for improving our understanding of the lives of people who have experienced trauma. These stories are challenging but also life enhancing.”

The author of Out of Calamity is Roger Rees, Emeritus Professor of Disability Studies and Research in the School of Medicine at Flinders University, Adelaide. For twenty five years he has run a rehabilitation and educational consultancy for people experiencing neurological injury and trauma. Out of Calamity is a book of stories and portraits
about these people.

We no longer have copies of the book available for sale. It may still be obtained by ordering through good bookstores. The publisher is Axiom Publishing.

• See the Table of Contents
• Read the Foreword
• Read a chapter, "A Chance to Live Again."
  
• Order a copy of “Out of Calamity”
• Download an interview with Roger Rees, from the ABC Local Overnight Program [MP3 Audio - 20.47 MB]
  

BIA's speech to the launch of the National Trauma Research Institute

Monday, 21 November 2011 13:36

Nick Rushworth spoke at the launch of the new National Trauma Research Institute in Melbourne, Thursday November 17:

"...This is why the work of the Institute is such an asset, upstream and downstream – not only in lobbying for better and more trauma care, but – in ensuring evidence-based best practice – compensating, correcting for, leveling out the uneven distribution of patient advantage..."

Read or download Nick's speech [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 19.55 KB]

BIA’s speech to the “Placing People with Passion” business lunch, Adelaide, September 23rd

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 17:45

Nick Rushworth’s speech to the “Placing People with Passion” business lunch, Adelaide, September 23rd, 2011.

“I'm hardly an official visitor, let alone some kind of inspector-general, of brain injury rehabilitation services, but the experience that’s typical of recovery from brain injury - especially in regional, rural and remote Australia - is that you exit hospital and fall off the edge of a cliff.”

Download the speech here. 

Brain Injury Australia’s presentation to the 2nd National Disability Summit in Melbourne, 15 September 2011

Tuesday, 20 September 2011 15:56

Nick Rushworth’s presentation to the 2nd National Disability Summit in Melbourne, 15 September 2011…

“…Whole populations of people with an acquired brain injury are not only outside the current disability services system but genuinely unknown to, "hidden" from, government.”

Download the presentation

BIA’s speech to the launch of the “Wall of Fame”, Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney…

Friday, 19 August 2011 10:48

Nick Rushworth’s speech to the 2011 Brain Injury Awareness Week launch of the Brain Injury Unit’s “Wall of Fame”, Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney:
”…one of those screamingly obvious life lessons you can only truly learn in the crucible of going through something like rehabilitation and recovery from brain injury is that; all of us live and operate in the world armed with, and protected by, the stories we can tell about ourselves. And our life stories – all those accidents of birth, birthplace, of family, and of a person not just born but created.”

Read or download the speech. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 16.23 KB]