2009-2010 Policy Paper on inflicted traumatic brain injury in children
Inflicted traumatic brain injury (ITBI) 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, 6 times more likely than those aged between 2 and 4 and 4 times more likely than those aged between 1 and 2 years. Of those children who survive ITBI, as many as 2 in every 3 will live with profound and permanent disability. Because it is their brain that is injured, children will experience a range of disabilities that will affect them not only physically but also in the way they think, feel and behave.
This paper details the outcomes for children who are abused in this way and the need for nationally consistent protocols for their rehabilitation and follow-up care.
Continue reading for the Executive Summary and Recommendations, or download the complete paper. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 454.69 KB]
Read more: 2009-2010 Policy Paper on inflicted traumatic brain injury in children
Falls-Related Traumatic Brain Injury In Young-Old People
Nick Rushworth’s presentation to the International Federation on Ageing 10th Global Conference, Melbourne May 4. Falls-Related Traumatic Brain Injury In Young-Old People: Under-Recognised, Under-Diagnosed, Highly Fatal And Highly Preventable
Due to population ageing, falls are now not only the leading cause of all injury hospitalisations throughout the developed world, but also the leading cause of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Even though fall-related injuries to the head are consistently the second most common after hip fracture, head trauma in older people is often overlooked in acute care and appropriate neurological assessment and monitoring forgotten. And though rates of falls-related injuries to the head are rising while those for hip fracture are falling, brain injury fails to feature in falls prevention programs.
Read more: Falls-Related Traumatic Brain Injury In Young-Old People
How did I find myself travelling to Washington with a small bird cage in my suitcase?
How did I find myself travelling to Washington with a small bird cage in my suitcase? My journey that led to this journey to The Eighth World Congress on Brain Injury, has been long, confronting and challenging.

Backstory
Bang! In the blink of an eye my life was changed by an horrific car accident! Days passed and then I struggled, slipping in and out of consciousness in intensive care. I thought I was pinned to the bed by steel spikes from innumerable breaks in my ribs, I couldn’t move my left side, I didn’t know who I was and I was terrified to see two headed people emerging from the gloom (double vision). I had no words to express this strange fact. But somehow in all the trauma and chaos I ‘saw the light’ that the most important things we own are our own thoughts.
Over the last 19 years I have been challenged to discover how my own thoughts could help me recover my life, and, as a teacher, how thoughts could give hope and help people overwhelmed by brain injury, the ‘king of change’. I captured my thoughts slowly on the backs of envelopes and scraps of paper and gradually put them together, typing with large print with one finger. This manuscript “Doing Up Buttons” was published by Penguin Australia in 1997. Since then not a week has gone by without someone contacting me to say how the book helped them ‘see’ and understand. I’ve been invited to speak to many groups of people affected by brain injury.
Chris's Bird Cage
Download Chris's story [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 209.63 KB] or follow the link below to continue reading.
Read more: How did I find myself travelling to Washington with a small bird cage in my suitcase?
Children and inflicted brain injury - video available
During Brain Injury Awareness Week 2009 Brain Injury Australia held a forum at the Childrens Hospital, Westmead on "Children and Inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury". Video of some presentations from the forum are now available to download.
Children and inflicted brain injury - video available
During Brain Injury Awareness Week 2009 Brain Injury Australia held a forum at the Childrens Hospital, Westmead on "Children and Inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury". Video of some presentations from the forum are now available to download.
Read more: Children and inflicted brain injury - video available
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