Published in the National Seniors Association’s 50 Something magazine. “While it might be common knowledge that falls are the leading cause of injury in Australia, perhaps it’s less well-known that falls are now also the leading cause of traumatic brain injury – accounting for around 2 in every 5 admissions to hospital.”

“Brain Injury Australia recommends that the Australian Government and the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) – through the Community and Disability Services Ministers’ Conference (CDSMC) – enlist stakeholders such as the Prisoner Health Information Group, the Juvenile Justice Research and Information Group and the National Forensic Disability Working Group to modify reception screening and other assessments to render optimum detection of ABI. This will serve to fulfill both the Australian Government’s obligations as a State Party to Article 31 (“Statistics and data collection”) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) as well as COAG’s commitment to “good data” under the National Disability Strategy.”

Published in Aged Care INsite magazine. “Firstly, while it was no surprise that those aged 85 years and over – the fastest growing segment of Australia’s population – have the highest falls, falls injury, TBI and TBI death rates, it was still shocking how high their death rates actually were. Every local and international study of TBI outcomes in the “old old” demonstrates “100 per cent mortality”. To be blunt; if you reach that age, fall over and hit your head, you die.”

“Brain Injury Australia commends the development of the National Carer Strategy as an important recognition of the work of Australia’s growing ‘care force’. It needs involvement and voices from all involved. In particular, it is essential that carers are directly involved in planning and implementing policy and programs under the Strategy.”

“Brain Injury Australia recommends that need is a more appropriate basis for eligibility than one based on a medical diagnosis. A nationally consistent definition of need must be developed, which retains flexibility to respond to the complexity and diversity of different disabilities, including acquired brain injury.”

“Brain Injury Australia recommends the Framework contain a description of the optimum working relationship between individual and systemic advocacy services, including a commitment to exchange data wherever possible.”

Published in Aged Care Australia magazine. “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 and appropriate neurological assessment and monitoring forgotten. Such checking is vital since older people run a much greater risk of bleeding in the brain following head trauma. Add blood-thinning medications like warfarin to the mix and that risk increases dramatically.”

“Brain Injury Australia recommends the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) provides funding to Brain Injury Australia to convene a short-term working group – comprising professionals involved in child health, welfare and protection – to produce a nationally agreed descriptor for trauma to a child‟s head and brain as the result of abuse.”

“Brain Injury Australia’s joint submission (with the Young People In Nursing Homes National Alliance and Multiple Sclerosis Australia) advises the the Department of Health and Ageing to consider implementing an individualised assessment and funding scheme in addition to the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) funding level to be implemented for younger residents with high and complex needs that include rehabilitation, aids and equipment, social and community involvement, care and support.”

Published in Parity magazine. “People with an acquired brain injury (ABI) are over-represented among the homeless. Everyone, at least, who works with the homeless knows this. But do governments know? And do they really want to?”

Published in the newsletter of Carers New South Wales (NSW) August/September 2009. “…just as falls are now the leading cause of injuries that end up in Australia’s hospitals, they are also the leading cause of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). And it’s not because more children are being bounced from trampolines or more drunken teenagers are falling from balconies on the weekend. It’s because older people are “slipping”, “tripping” or “stumbling” over (the labels our hospitals give to the kinds of falls involved).”

“Brain Injury Australia recommends that the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs – with the Department of Health and Ageing, and State and Territory departments of health – works to ensure that, in all government-funded falls prevention planning and programming “brain injury” appears , by name, alongside any other falls injuries.”

Brain Injury Australia writes on falls-related Traumatic Brain Injury for “Synapse,” March 2009.

Published in Parity magazine. “Nowadays, so it’s said, governments only respond to beefs with a base in evidence. So, while I believe the White Paper when it says it “addresses the causes of homelessness” — in the same way that I believe any politics with progressive tendencies trying to differentiate itself from a “law and order” platform in its opponents, by stressing an interest in the “causes of crime” — I’m unconvinced that the Australian Government has evidenced sufficient knowledge of those causes, which are as multifarious and complex as any other social phenomenon.”

“Brain Injury Australia’s consultations overwhelmingly point to a lack of awareness about brain injury throughout the disability employment services system as being the fundamental impediment to workforce participation.”

“Brain Injury Australia advises that a commitment by Australian Governments to additional funding of Community Access Services will act to break down barriers to social engagement for not only people with an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), but people with a disability generally.”

Published for the Brain Injury Association of New South Wales (NSW) in its Summer 2008-2009 Newsletter.

Nick Rushworth, Executive Officer of Brain Injury Australia, writes on the connection between “challenging behaviours” and brain injury for the Brain Injury Association of NSW Newsletter.

“Brain Injury Australia recommends that, in keeping with both the Australian Government’s whole-of-government commitment to a social inclusion agenda and the projected growth rates in the number of people with an Acquired Brain Injury in the Commonwealth State/Territory Disability Agreement’s (CSTDA) target population, the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, enhances funding for Community Access Services in all future iterations of the CSTDA.”

“The overarching point of Brain Injury Australia’s submission to the Australian Government’s Green Paper “Which Way Home? A New Approach to Homelessness” is to demonstrate that most of the population subgroups that comprise the homeless – people with a mental illness, people with alcohol and other substance abuse problems, people leaving (or at risk of re-entering) prisons or juvenile justice institutions, people fleeing domestic violence etc. – are absolutely commensurate with the constituent populations of Australians with an acquired brain injury (ABI). And unless, in whatever strategies derive from this consultation, the Australian Government builds the capacity within all services to the homeless to firstly recognise, and then address an underlying – perhaps undisclosed, perhaps undiagnosed – ABI then every interaction with a homeless Australian simply fiddles at the edge of chronic conditions, and places a person with an ABI at risk of permanent homelessness.”

“Traumatic Brain Injury is highly preventable. Brain Injury Australia recommends that, as part of a whole-of-government approach to Acquired Brain Injury, the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs encourages the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government to direct the Australian Transport Council – comprising Federal and all State and Territory Ministers with transport responsibilities – to revise all subsequent National Road Safety Action Plans (constituting the National Road Safety Strategy 2001-2010; aimed at a 40% reduction in the number of road-related fatalities by 2010) to include children as a distinct target for its strategy to “Improve Equity Among Road Users.”

“Brain Injury Australia advises that the Disability Branch within the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs meet with representatives of Brain Injury Australia to discuss the relationship between brain injury and mental illness further.”

“This submission argues that although further research is required into unmet needs, there is irrefutable evidence that people with an acquired brain injury (ABI) and their families are significantly disadvantaged under the current funding and program arrangements of the Commonwealth, State Territory disability Agreement (CSTDA).”