Brain Injury Australia, again in partnership with Informa Australia, is pleased to announce the 5th Annual National Acquired Brain Injury Conference, to be held on the 24th and 25th of October 2017, at the Rendezvous Hotel in Melbourne. Brain Injury Australia is the chief non-financial sponsor of the Conference and its Executive Officer, Nick Rushworth, will chair the conference. The Conference now welcomes submissions of papers that will address key strategies for managing the changing needs of people with a brain injury, including innovative models of care and support.

“The Friendship Foundation Limited is launching International Gratitude Day® and the Month of Gratitude in April 2017 and you can have a major impact on its success by supporting us as we establish this special event over the coming years. This highly anticipated event will highlight the importance of PREVENTION rather than CURE!”

The 4th Annual National Acquired Brain Injury Conference will be held at Royal Rehab in Ryde, Sydney on the 8th and 9th November, 2016. The conference will feature an “International Keynote Presentation” on traumatic brain injury as a chronic condition, delivered by Professor Barry Willer from the University at Buffalo in New York State.

This year’s Opening Address brings to light the effects of brain injury on mental health. Around 9 in every 10 people who experience a concussion make a complete recovery within a fortnight. But, given how common concussion is, that still leaves a potentially very large number of people living with its consequences.

110 people from around Australia and overseas attended a day-long workshop on 27th June devoted to the interaction between people with a brain injury and the criminal justice system, held in partnership with UNSW Australia’s Australian Centre of Research Excellence in Offender Health. The agenda is available to download.

120 people from around Australia attended 25th August’s Forum on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for people with a brain injury, held in partnership with the University of Sydney’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy. Speakers included Dr. Hans Reinders, Professor of Ethics and Mental Disability from the Free University of Amsterdam, Associate Professor Natasha Lannin from La Trobe University, and the Deputy CEO of the National Disability Insurance Agency, Ian Maynard.

Brain Injury Australia presents a day-long training in best practice concussion assessment, treatment and management, led by Professor Barry Willer, Director of Research in the Concussion Management Clinic at the University at Buffalo in western New York and Professor Gary Browne, Director of the Sports Concussion Service at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney. They will be joined by physiotherapist Dr. Julia Treleaven from the Whiplash and Neck Pain Research Unit at the University of Queensland.

The theme for 2016’s national Brain Injury Awareness Week – 15th to 21st August – is young stroke. Brain Injury Australia and National Stroke Foundation – in association with the Stroke Recovery Association of New South Wales and the Stroke Association of Victoria – have teamed up to plan a series of awareness-raising events and activities, including the Week’s national launch to be held in Melbourne on Monday, August 15th.

Originally developed in the alcohol and other drug field, motivational interviewing purposefully creates a conversation with a person around change, without attempting to convince the person of the need to change or instructing them about how to change. Dr. Manchester’s workshops will suit those working with people with brain injury due to trauma, psychiatric illness or substance misuse and people with intellectual disability. Common cognitive issues covered include attention and memory problems, impulsivity and changes in self-awareness.

In a partnership between concussion awareness and education platform Stopconcussions and Brain Injury Australia, the world’s greatest ever ice hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, will be coming to Australia to host the newly named 2016 Wayne Gretzky Ice Hockey Classic in June and July, supported by Hungry Jacks and Destination NSW.

Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher and poet Norman Doidge, M.D., is the author of two New York Times bestsellers “The Brain That Changes Itself” and “The Brain’s Way of Healing”. Join Doidge in his world-first two-day seminars as he outlines and reviews revolutionary research into neuroplasticity – the brain’s amazing capacity to adapt and heal – and how to apply these discoveries to a variety of clinical settings. The seminars will be given in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in May, 2016.

Dr. Ashok Jansari from Goldsmith College at University of London presents two of his most popular neuroscience seminars in Sydney on March 3rd 2016, between 1:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. “The Life of Brian (the brain)” introduces the fascinating world of cognitive neuropsychology and how studying individuals with brain injury helps us to understand the mysteries and functioning of the healthy brain.