Brain Injury Awareness Week 2009
Thursday, 20 August 2009 12:20
2009's Brain Injury Awareness Week was about children and Acquired Brain Injury, especially those whose Traumatic Brain Injury was the result of abuse. Traumatic Brain Injury is the leading cause of death and disability in children who have been abused. And infants are at the greatest risk. Brain Injury Australia held a special public forum on inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury at The Children's Hospital at Westmead (Sydney) on Thursday September 17.
Traumatic Brain Injury is the leading cause of death and disability in children who have been abused. Infants are at the greatest risk. The New South Wales Child Death Review Team's 10-year survey of 136 fatal assaults found that children less than 1 year old were 16 times more likely to die than those aged between 5 and 15.
More than 50 children with inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury were admitted to just New South Wales’ two statewide children’s hospitals - The Children's Hospital at Westmead and Sydney Children’s Hospital - during the last 5 years alone, and their numbers are increasing. Their average age was 10 months. The international research evidence indicates that around 1 in 3 die as a result of the injuries to their brain. And of those who survive, as many as 2 in every 3 will live with profound and permanent disability.
Yet the incidence of inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury may be dramatically higher than the numbers of children admitted to hospital. During 2007-08, over 12,000 notifications of physical abuse made to Australia's child protection agencies were substantiated - there was reason to believe that the child had been, was being, or was likely to be abused. In the same year, less than 200 infants were hospitalised due to assault. For every child admitted with inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury, international surveys suggest as many as 150 other children in the community may suffer head trauma from caregivers. 1 in every 3 cases of inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury may be missed even if they reach hospital. And nearly 1 in 3 of those children will go on to be re-injured, and 1 in 10 die.
To learn more about inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury, read our Frequently Asked Questions page. We have also listed some useful and reputable websites on a Resources page.
For more information about children and Acquired Brain Injury, read Brain Injury Australia’s 2008 Policy Paper (PDF, 194 KB).
Both The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Sydney Children’s Hospital are seeing an alarming rise in the number of young children falling from windows and balconies of high rise buildings. Read more in Brain Injury Australia's Policy Paper on falls-related Traumatic Brain Injury. (PDF, 339 KB)
During Brain Injury Awareness Week 2009 Brain Injury Australia held a forum at the Childrens Hospital, Westmead on "Children and Inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury". The forum brought together a range of perspectives on children and brain injury - from child protection, acute care, rehabilitation, research, the law and social work - in an effort to raise awareness about a complex, common, preventable but under-recognised disability. The program also featured a presentation on the alarming rise in child falls from heights.
Some presentations from the forum are now available to download.
