TBI Consumer Reports

• Issue 1: Long-term Post-TBI Health Problems [PDF]
  Individuals with TBI experience some health problems much more often than people without a disability, for example, balance and sleep difficulties, urinary control problems, arthritis, as well as hair, skin, and body temperature changes. Suggestions are provided for dealing with these common health challenges.

   

• Issue 2: Aerobic Exercise Following TBI [PDF]
  This TBI Consumer Report describes the many benefits experienced by people with TBI who engage in aerobic exercise (like running), including fewer sleep problems, fewer cognitive complaints and less depression. Suggestions are made for taking up or resuming aerobic exercise after TBI.

   

• Issue 3: Parenting after TBI [PDF]
  Our research suggests that one of the few areas in which parents with long-term brain injury differ from non-disabled parents is in being somewhat more depressed and having children who are somewhat more depressed than in families that are not coping with TBI. Suggestions are made for parents to address this and other issues.

   

• Issue 4: Coping with Post-TBI Emotional Distress [PDF]
  The results of our research suggest that depression is 10 times more likely for people with TBI, and anxiety is twice as likely for people with TBI as for people with no disability. This TBI Consumer Report focuses on steps individuals with TBI can take to alleviate depression and/or anxiety.

   

• Issue 5: Coping with Sexual Problems after TBI [PDF]
  After TBI, commonly the individual's social and sexual behavior and his/her sexuality are affected — somewhat differently for men and women. This issue of TBI Consumer Report discusses approaches you can use to help address problems that affect establishing and maintaining a relationship with another person after TBI that is satisfying, sexually and emotionally.

   

• Issue 6: Coping with Substance Abuse after TBI [PDF]
  This issue focuses on two aspects of substance abuse after TBI: first, the magnitude of the problem and why "staying clean" is important to people with TBI, and second, what can be done to help prevent and treat substance abuse after a person has had a TBI. This advice is based on "what worked" for people who shared with us their experiences in avoiding and coping with substance abuse.

   

• Issue 7: Peer Mentoring [PDF]
  This issue of TBI Consumer Report describes how the TBI Mentoring Partnership Program works and initial data on its impact. The Report also discusses how similar peer mentoring programs might be established in other areas of the country.

   

• Issue 8: Person-Centered Planning [PDF]
  This issue describes a method to plan for a better future that places the person with TBI at the center of planning. Person-centered planning can be done in community agencies that serve people with disabilities, or it can be done by an individual with a supportive group of friends and family.

   

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