Your Weekly Dose of #5ThoughtsFriday: A description of what we think is important at BIAMD
  #5Thoughts Friday
The "Jackson 5 TV Debut" Edit ion
02/21/2020
#5ThoughtsFriday is Powered By :
and by

"Your Impact:
Making the Invisible Visible"

MARCH 26-27, 2020

2020 BIAMD ONLINE CONFERENCE REGISTRATION IS LIVE!



For More Information

To Register

Interested in Sponsoring?


NEED CEUs?

We've applied for CEUs for the following:

  • American Therapeutic Recreation Association
  • Certification for Case Manager Certification
  • Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification
  • Certified Peer Recovery Specialist
  • Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Physical Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Registered Nurse
  • Social Work
  • Speech and Language Pathologist
  • Worker's Compensation Certification
Black =Pending Approval          Green = Approved

Here are the 5 things we thought were
worth sharing with you this week:
Photo by  Daniel von Appen  on  Unsplash
This Offering is part of BIAMD's Membership Content Initiative, and will become a part of the Member Exclusive content available on the BIAMD Member Portal.

As a Support Services Case Manager at the Brain Injury Association of Maryland, several of the individuals I work with are recipients of federal housing vouchers, commonly referred to as Section 8. These housing vouchers have important implications for individuals living with brain injury because homelessness disproportionately affects this population. According to a recent study published by Lancet Public Health, a majority of people experiencing homelessness across the world have a history of concussions and other traumatic brain injuries. The authors also argued that these injuries could have contributed to or been caused by their homelessness.

The Home Act is an important piece of legislation that was passed by The Baltimore County Council in November. This bill makes it illegal for landlords to discriminate against housing voucher holders. This legislation has been a top priority of Senator William Smith Jr., D-Montgomery, who is the new chairman of Maryland’s Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. The committee sponsored but withdrew the housing bill last session, when the committee was led by his predecessor, Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, who resigned from the Senate in December. The legislation was filed with the General Assembly in each of the past three years, but this year, it passed. 

CLICK HERE to download and read more of Arin's article on this important piece of legislation.
A Statewide HOME Act is now making its way through both the Maryland Legislature.   The Senate Bill (SB530) has made it through the Committee process and is scheduled to have its THIRD reading on the Senate Floor on Friday, February 21 st .   Please contact your Senator today to let them know you support this bill and what it will do to allow individuals with brain injuries to use their housing vouchers to live wherever in Maryland they want.
 
While the bill on the House side is not as far along, be sure to contact your Delegates as well to voice your support of this important civil rights bill.  
 
Don’t Know Your Legislators? No Problem. CLICK HERE , type in your address, and you will receive the contact information for all of your elected representatives.  



The Frances Fund Scholarships, named in memory long time BIAMD leader Frances Bateson Dexter, provides Reduced Registration for Individuals with Brain Injuries and their family members.


Through the generous donations of businesses and families, like the Wenger, Cignatta and Dexter families, a limited number of scholarships are available for Individuals with Brain Injuries and their family members who wish to attend the Annual Conference, March 26th-27th, 2020 at the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, MD.  

This Application is not a guarantee that you will receive a scholarship but we try very hard to accommodate as many individuals and families as possible given the funds available.

The scholarship "typically" reduces the $410 two day rate to $80 and the one day rate from $310 to $40.

Photo by  mwangi gatheca  on  Unsplash
“You see in traumatic brain injury or aphasia, people may have these outbursts of cursing language that is preserved, while other parts of their vocabularies are lost.”
The way we might impulsively blurt out a profanity, in response to anger or surprise or hitting a thumb with a hammer, suggests curse words might have a special place in our brains, accessed a little bit differently than ordinary language.

The study of taboo words has been a little bit taboo itself. But there is legitimate academic and health rationale for studying profane language, says associate professor Jamie Reilly, who directs the Memory, Concepts and Cognition Lab in the College of Public Health.

“I've seen lots of patients clinically who curse after they’ve had brain injuries,” Reilly says. “It just kind of comes out, and they really don't want it to come out. Often they'll say something harsh and then start crying and apologizing. There’s no treatment for it.”

So Reilly and his team have been conducting serious research on explicit language.

With their newly published paper “ Building the perfect curse word: A psycholinguistic investigation of the form and meaning of taboo words” in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Reilly’s team has produced an R-rated report containing language too explicit to be spoken on network television, at least without frequent bleeps. They also have pioneered research in the emergent phenomenon of compound swear words, which creatively connect time-tested profanities with inoffensive words (-bucket, -wad, -monkey) to create novel­ and sometimes amusing expletives.

Their goal is to better understand how our minds process bad words, as a step toward helping people control unwanted behavior. There’s much that researchers still don’t know.

CLICK HERE to see if George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words may be a key to improving Brain Injury Treatments in the Future!
PLEASE NOMINATE YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, AND INFLUENCERS FOR



The Nomination Categories are:

  • Individual with a Brain Injury
  • Family Member / Partner / Friend
  • Healthcare Professional - Working in the Brain Injury Community
  • Supporter / Advocate - Making Contributions in an Official Capacity

Awards will be presented at the BIAMD Annual Conference General Session on Thursday, March 26, 2020, at the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, Maryland. 

Nominations should be received by no later than March 1, 2020 to allow us adequate time to select the award recipient and make arrangements for them to attend the awards ceremony.  

Photo by  Jay Skyler  on  Unsplash
People often mistake high functioning brain injury survivors as “getting on well”, when they just don’t see the things that are causing distress for that person. Most of you will have considered how short term and/or working memory can be a problem, along with things like fatigue, aphasia etc. But actually, there are some activities that we struggle with which seem so silly, that through embarrassment we might not share with you.

That’s why I’m going to share with you the simple real-world example that has foiled me several times...
I don’t drive very often these days, but I still own and maintain a car, so I have my independence. But most of the time my partner James drives us in his car (he really enjoys driving so is only too happy to be my chauffeur). However, there are times that I need to run an errand, so I still make some short journeys in my little hatchback. It’s very economical, and as I’m usually just running into town, it can be months between visits to the petrol station.

I’ve been driving for twenty years; my first car was a Ford Fiesta from the late eighties. It was very basic with its roll-down windows (Gen Z reader’s, image you were building your biceps by heaving the lever round and round as fast as you could, and you’ll get the picture) but it did have a lockable fuel cap as standard. Following the oil crisis of 1973 where urban myth has it that people siphoned fuel out of strangers' cars because of the cost and shortage of it, Ford added the lockable fuel cap to give their drivers extra security. For a while, it became common for drivers to need to use a key to unlock their fuel cap until car manufacturers found other ways to get around the problem. For instance, my last car had a lever inside the car in the drivers' footwell for you to pull when you needed the release the outer flap to the fuel cap.

My current car is only my fourth in my twenty years of driving, so there have been many advancements that may have been available for a long time before I owned a car that featured them. Thus, that called for a period of readjustment each time. Back to my current car... I know that it doesn’t have a lever for me to pull when I need to fill up. I also know that I don’t have to use my car key to unlock the fuel cap. And yet, EVERY SINGLE TIME I have refuelled this car, I have had to call James to remind me how to open the fuel cap!

CLICK HERE find out more on Michelle's lived experience.
2) What We are Reading We Think
You Might Find Interesting
Rather than waiting for the big life-changing moments, which more often than not don't happen, The Power of Small shows you how to take manageable steps as opportunities to change your life, one decision at a time -- emphasizing self-compassion as a means to gently expand your comfort zone and open up new horizons.

Mixing case studies from clinical practice with the latest psychological research, the authors also share personal stories, having worked first-hand with these techniques on their own journeys towards improved mental and emotional well being.

From understanding -- and learning to observe without judgement -- the traps our minds set, to breaking our of our comfort zones, The Power of Small technique is all about what is manageable in the now, and teaches us how to prioritise and know what boundaries to keep, and which to gently push.

CLICK HERE for more on this very practical book.
1) Quote We Are Contemplating...

"We need more light about each other.
Light creates understanding,
understanding creates love,
love creates patience,
and patience creates unity."


Have you ever clicked on the pictures posted at the end of every #5ThoughtsFridays? Try it. You might learn something fun!
Photo by  Humphrey Muleba  on  Unsplash
HAVE A WONDERFUL
WEEKEND.

Did you enjoy #5ThoughtsFriday? If so, please forward this email to a friend! 

Got a story we need to follow or share? Send it to info@biamd.org .  

  Please let us know your requests and suggestions by emailing us at info@biamd.org

  Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Let us know! Just send a tweet to  @biamd1 and put #5ThoughtsFriday in there so we can find it.

This blog is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute endorsement of treatments, individuals, or programs which appear herein. Any external links on the website are provided for the visitor’s convenience; once you click on any of these links you are leaving BIAMD's #5ThoughtsFriday blog post. BIAMD has no control over and is not responsible for the nature, content, and availability of those sites. 

  Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend.