Stacy Mulder and Tennessee's Brain Injury Association

Speaker 1 (00:00.11)

Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we celebrate the people and stories that make our community so special. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and more importantly, everyone here matters. We're your hosts, Jason and Mindy Hoover, and we're passionate about shining a light on individuals who are making a real impact right here in Middle Tennessee. This is about community, connection,

and the incredible people who are making a difference. Let's dive in as we uncover powerful stories and meet remarkable people whose journeys will inspire us all, right here on You Matter Nashville.

Speaker 1 (00:37.848)

Welcome back to You Matter Nashville. I'm your host, Jason Hoover, alongside with my beautiful wife, Mindy. And today we are touching on a topic that touches more lives than we truly understand. We have a special guest with us today, Stacey Mulder, who is actually the executive director of Brain Injury Association of America, the Tennessee chapter. Stacey, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Jason. It's good to be with you and Mindy today.

All right. So I want to share just a little bit about this organization and you as well. So I'm going to brag on you also. So Brain Injury Association of America, the Tennessee chapter is an organization working to provide hope, education and advocacy for brain injury survivors and their families across the state. Stacey brings years of nonprofit leadership to her role and is passionate about ensuring that no survivor walks the journey alone. Under her leadership,

This organization is raising awareness, improving resources, and fighting for stronger litigation that supports those affected by brain injuries in Tennessee. Stacey, thank you so much for being on the show today. And I would love to start things off with you explaining what a brain injury is and how it affects not just the survivor, but the families and friends, the loved ones.

Sure. So brain injury can also be called a traumatic brain injury. It can be called a concussion and it can happen from a number of ways. It's usually some type of hit to the head. So it could be a violent attack. It could be a gun injury. So it penetrates the skull. It could be a car accident. Could be a sporting activity or it could be from a slip and fall. Some jar or hit to the head. When that happens that

Speaker 2 (02:25.996)

be the frontal lobe back of the brain and that has an impact on what's inside the skull and that's the brain. So that's where the injury happens. It can happen from even when I raise up our military, appreciate our military so much, but a lot of our service members have blast exposure. So even if there's a blast in front of them and it pushes them backwards, that can jar the brain inside the skull as well and cause a brain injury.

And that's something we don't even think about. We think of like direct hits, like a physical blunt hit to the head or a car accident. But to think, wow, how many of our soldiers have experienced explosions and just the impact from that. That's just incredible.

It's incredible. And I was talking to a gentleman who served as a gunner in our military. He had 12 blast exposures. he was also think about shooting a gun and it's repetitive motion. If it's against your shoulder, that's shaking. That alone can shake your brain. And that's similar to shaken baby. Have you heard of a shaken baby? Yeah. And so that's also a brain injury. So those things are ways. But also we don't think about stroke as a brain injury.

But that is as well. there are other things like lack of oxygen. Let's say somebody drowns and you revive them and they have a period of time without oxygen. So that can also cause a brain injury. So there's a lot of different ways you can get a brain injury. And it's significant. Many, many people, thank goodness, fully. But it can be a long road to recovery for some. And some have things that they have to deal with throughout their life that can impact their whole family. So let's say a brain injury survivor might

lose their ability to walk or they might not have the ability to hear or see the same way they could, or they might lose some of the executive function because they've been hit in the frontal lobe, the ability to think and it might change their behavior. So that can cause loss of employment, it can cause loss of insurance, it has a financial impact on the survivor and the whole family. I have a friend who I work with and is gonna be joining our community council whose brother-in-law was impacted on the job.

Speaker 2 (04:33.304)

from an accident and luckily was able to get workers caught but is a quadriplegic as a result. Great functioning of the brain but you know doesn't have the ability to move around the same way and that's impacted the entire family, the kids, the wife, everyone.

I would imagine because they have to take care of him. Man, I can't imagine. That's one of my biggest fears is being so bound to a bed and knowing it. Having that ability and then it take him away.

Yeah, and this person is high functioning. He has a car that's set up for him to be able to drive and they run a business together. he has a full life, but it's, you know, he still has challenges. He has to work around, he's doing it beautifully and gracefully, I will say, but you know, it's not without its challenges. Right.

And the financial, mean, all of that equipment cost a lot of money. Yeah. You know, I, or we know somebody who had a major stroke and it, you know, fortunately he survived it, but he has aphasia and, know, I, I'm seeing him try to communicate through an iPad with assistance. You know, I know it was so frustrating for him.

does.

Speaker 1 (05:56.898)

to that. Because it seemed like he was able to think just like he normally does and function other than it couldn't translate to speech. And I can just imagine how extremely frustrating that would be.

It's so frustrating and I'm so thankful for technology that allows an individual like that to communicate. I was watching some newscast the other day and there was a woman who was talking about it because she has the same. She couldn't speak, but it could translate from her brain and then they could recreate her voice. And so what she was thinking was being able to share with the audience that was watching her. So there is amazing technology out there and I wish everybody had access to it. There's another

piece of that is sometimes a person with a brain injury doesn't have the ability to swallow, so they can't eat. we do therapy, speech therapists do therapy around that to help increase that strength. And I just was learning about a new device the other day that can be used to help strengthen those muscles to improve that. But thank goodness for some devices that can assist.

You know, I thinking this may be one good thing for a with the voice, you know, they're coming out where, you know, text to speech. I didn't think about that. If they're able to use their voice, if you have recordings of it, guess. Yeah. That's fantastic.

Yeah, and often we do because you need to leave somebody a voicemail.

Speaker 1 (07:24.91)

You have the tone and everything that can be replicated. That's really cool. Now here in Tennessee, what is the most common brain injury that we see here?

That's a great question. I was just looking at the statistic the other day. Let's start with the number, right? Each year there are 25,000 new brain injuries in Tennessee alone. And that's across the board. Concussions, all different types and levels of brain injury, right? There's mild to severe brain injuries. The most common, I believe, is a slip and fall or some type of jarring like that.

I know car accidents are 19 % of the brain injuries that happen in Tennessee. I can actually pull that exact statistic if you guys want it.

And what about sports?

Sports too. I don't know the percentage of sports because our Our statistics don't reflect that percentage from sports but football certainly any impact sport football is the highest and after football it's lacrosse rugby and soccer for the most impact and lacrosse Rugby players and soccer players aren't wearing helmets, right? They play pretty aggressively

Speaker 2 (08:46.136)

So those are the highest risks. Of course, any sport you have a risk. You can be playing baseball and you can be hitting the head of the baseball or baseball bat. You can slam into another player and then any kind of jarring like that or impact that the head takes can cause a brain injury.

See, I'm a baseball guy. That's what's wrong with me. Anyway. I don't know if this is part of what you guys do, staying on the sports topic, I know they have these guardian helmets now. And I think that's what it's called. It may be called something. Okay. And it's fascinating. Do you know much about that? Is that something that may be

It's called a guardian helmet.

Speaker 1 (09:29.979)

kind of normal because I know they're using it on different teams, like one or two players or something like that.

Yeah, I don't know a lot, not enough to talk intelligently about guardian helmets, but I will say this about helmets. The better quality helmets are worth the money. Protect your brain. If you're playing a sport, if you're riding a bike or you're riding a skateboard or your roller skates or whatever you're on, wear a helmet. It is very, very important to going at any speed where you might fall to have a helmet to protect your head. wear your helmets, wear it even when you're just kind of messing around playing a sport or.

riding a bike, please, please, please.

Now, I know we're talking a lot about like concussion injuries and stuff right now with this kid sports and skating and everything like that. But if it does happen, you're on the field or they're at the skate park. What is the best thing for someone to do?

The individual should tell somebody right away, whether it's a coach, whether it's the athletic trainer or a parent, depending on where they are, and then seek evaluation. I've always done this with my kids, kind of the eye test, but I'm not a doctor. So go see somebody right away. And if an individual loses consciousness or is vomiting, immediately go to see a healthcare professional, whether it's emergency room or a walk-in clinic, because they need to be treated.

Speaker 1 (10:51.626)

And there's really a limit on how many, like a kid or an adult period should have. And it's crazy cause you know, watching kids in football and stuff, you see some of these kids, they'll have three concussions before they're out of high school. So, I mean, I know they're starting to monitor that now and everything. but

It's the return to play time is important. So if they have one concussion, they're being monitored by their athletic trainer as well as their doctor. And then they're cleared to go back to play. And what they do in between the time of the concussion until they go back to play is also important. So screen time, dark rooms, some of those can impact recovery. So it's important to follow whatever instruction the doctor does give you and take that time to heal before you play again.

And certainly I don't know that there's an exact number. Like you can't have more than this number, but the more concussions you have, obviously the more it's going to, you're at risk. So you just want to make sure that you limit that as much as possible.

Yeah. I know, some of the professional athletes, they get to a point that the doctor says you don't, you can't take another one and they have to make a decision on their career path. yeah. Right. Yeah. one thing I did notice, on the site was that, TBI is often referred to as the invisible injury. Yeah. could you share a little bit about.

online unboxing.

Speaker 1 (12:21.132)

You know, why that is.

Yeah, of course. So when the injury happens, you may or may not have external signs. So if you were hit in the head, you might have an area where you were bleeding, had stitches, or you might have had something that went into your skull, whether it was a gunshot or something that fractured your skull. So there may be external visibility of that injury for a period of time until it heals, but the brain's gonna take a lot longer to heal. And there may be impacts to the brain that don't heal.

And so once the wounds are gone, the person looks and acts normal, but they don't feel normal. But they feel there's a new normal for them, right? And they're still dealing with maybe the ability to get their speech out the way they want to, or their gait in their walk, or their ability to swallow, or sometimes it's even their ability to think. Sometimes it's their ability to see, and an individual with a brain injury can have multiple things that impact them. And it's...

It's challenging for them because people expect them to be the way they were before and not take into account all the things that might be impacted in their day-to-day life because of their brain injury. So what we're trying to do is really create awareness about what a brain injury is and the recovery process and what might be changed for that individual for the rest of their life.

I know, my son played baseball, all his life growing up and I would coach probably, I don't know, probably four or five years ago, they started requiring those coaching to take a, not a class, but, be taught about, concussions and what to look for, in the players and, know, pretty much the process of that.

Speaker 1 (14:11.464)

What are some of the things that a coach or a parent should look for? Like if a kid did get hit in the head or was riding their bike and they fell, they got a scrape on their head. What are some of those signs that we should be aware of?

I've always been taught to look at the eyes and I'd have to go back and see if that's right. But you can see if the eyes don't dial it correctly. The organs should dilate together and if they're not, they're a different size in the pupils. You want to look at that. But you know, as a lay person who's not a healthcare professional, go seek the appropriate person to diagnose that, especially if there's a trainer on site or a doctor on site or...

or go see your family doctor or go to the ER to have that checked out. I mentioned this earlier, but if the person passes out or if they have a seizure or if they're vomiting, that's definitely more serious. You definitely want to get checked out right away.

Right, definitely not something to take lightly.

No, and I think in sports, it's what you were mentioning about the training for coaches is so important and athletic trainers as well. I think students even have to sign a waiver now for concussion awareness, which is part of our state program and part of, think, a heads up CDC program to create awareness and work on prevention. And I think our football players are now taught to a different way to tackle the way they hold their head. And I think there's even net guards that can help, especially for those that are on the line.

Speaker 2 (15:40.598)

that can protect their neck and maybe keep their neck straight so that their head doesn't go back. But there are new ways that are teaching them to play the sport more safely.

Now, what other, I you just mentioned some, but what are some other local programs that you guys are like just especially proud of that you guys are doing for like just advocacy or education?

Yeah, in Tennessee, we have four initiatives. Well, let me take a step back. The Brain Injury Association does six things, prevention, awareness, research, treatment, education, and advocacy. So those are the national things that we work on. And of course, those are all important to us in Tennessee as well. As we're starting to form our community council, which will be a statewide group of individuals that are passionate about supporting brain injury survivors and caregivers,

The four areas that we're really going to focus on are community outreach, and I'll talk about each one those afterwards, provider education, advocacy, and fundraising. In community outreach, it's what are the resources that are available in our state? Where are the rehabilitation centers, the outpatient and the inpatient? What are the centers where you can go just to get a little bit of more physical therapy? Where are the places where you can get financial assistance and people that can help you with any legal issue that you might need?

So it's identifying where all those resources are, what they are, and where are the gaps, and how are we gonna fill those gaps with additional resources. And once we know where all those resources are, how are we gonna disseminate that information to all brain injury survivors and their loved ones so that they have it at their disposal. So that's the work of one group. The next group is provider education. This is making sure that all of our physical therapists, our occupational therapists, our speech therapists, our doctors,

Speaker 2 (17:32.148)

our neurologists are trained on brain injury specifically, so they can get a brain injury certification called a CBIS. We have other training as well around concussions and brain injury fundamentals, which is another great course that healthcare professionals can take. And they can go to our site and they can find out about all that training. They can contact me and say, hey, we want to have our whole group trained, but we want to make sure that providers know about the training resources.

and get their certifications. It's great for them professionally, but it's also great for the individuals they're treating, that they have that knowledge. And then on our website, we have a learning and management system that is geared specifically for healthcare professionals, where they can go and they can see different videos and webinars that are specific to them, that are available there. That's part of that provider education work. And then advocacy is really important because Tennessee is a great state.

But there's always more that we can do through our healthcare system in Tennessee to support survivors. One of the things that we're going to be working on going from August through 2026 is to talk to our state legislators about having private pay insurance cover cognitive therapy for brain injury survivors. It currently doesn't. physical therapy is really important. The person's ability to eat, walk, interact.

Hold a pen, hold a fork, all that's really important. But cognitive therapy is equally important because that's how an individual connects with other people. And so that's something we believe needs to be covered. And so we're going to be working on that.

it's not. Right. That's trouble or any kind of brain stimulation or you know, know a lot of these therapies are still kind of, kind of in the beginning stages, but cognitive therapy has been around forever. It seems like, so why isn't that

Speaker 2 (19:12.546)

Right.

Speaker 2 (19:27.458)

We're not sitting down with a therapist and talking about your problems. We're talking about exercising the-

Yes, exercising the brain.

as much function as we can. that's private, it's private insurance. That's the focus is getting that. But there's a lot like Tennessee doesn't have a TBI waiver. I know a lot of people would really like that. And designating more resources and more financial finances from the state to cover some of this be important.

Okay. Now TBO waiver. Can you share what that's about really quick?

It's really about having more resources available to the survivor in our state. I think what it does is allow a certain amount of money contributed to that area. So maybe we don't talk too much about it. I can't really speak as articulately about that as I'd like to.

Speaker 1 (20:20.013)

Gotcha.

Speaker 1 (20:24.802)

Gotcha. Now.

And the other area we're focusing on is fundraising. so to be able to provide all of the resources that we do, we need to raise money. And the more money we raise, the more we can do in our state and across the country for brain injury survivors.

Okay. And that's what I was going to ask next was what are you wanting to expand and do next? Like what is your top priorities to like, especially like legislative wise, what are you guys really pushing forward to help with these survivors?

Well, the first one that I just talked about was the private pay insurance for cognitive care. That's what we're going to be working on. We're going to be rallying the group of individuals that has raised their hands and said, I want to work on advocacy. And we're going to start talking to all of our state representatives to get them engaged in that conversation, tell them it's important to us, and ask what information they would like. And then I'm asking all of our brain injury survivors and the caregivers to also share their story.

with our state legislators so they understand the full impact of a brain injury and why we need their help.

Speaker 1 (21:30.958)

So are you seeing overall an increase in support for these organizations, like your organization that's helping people with these injuries?

I think the key is the more we can create awareness. And we've got Concussion Awareness Month coming up in September. And so that's important time where we'll share messaging that a concussion can happen to anyone at any age. It can be an older person. The most at risk individuals are people over 50 and kids. Kids are clumsy and they're learning to walk. They can slip and fall easy. They're playing sports. Older people lose balance and they can slip and fall and hit their head when it happened to my mom.

about 12 years ago, she fell and hit her head and has some hearing loss as a result of that accident. And so we want to create awareness that concussion can happen at any age to anyone. And if you do get a concussion, what do you do? Who do you see? So that's our push for Concussion Awareness Month. We also have an awareness month for brain injuries in March. And that's getting people to share their story to create a sense that people

other than brain injury survivors and caregivers really understand the impact of the brain injury and can not identify with the individual that has the brain injury, but can appreciate what they're going through and support them. So those awareness campaigns help us to get our message to more people so that more people can support our organization and other like organizations with donations, with fundraising events, and just getting engaged in raising their voices. So yes, we're seeing the momentum grow.

And the more we share this message like we're doing today, thank you so much for doing that. The more people will know and can go to our website to make a donation.

Speaker 1 (23:19.822)

You know, it me remember a time talking about kids. Um, one time, I think I was about four or five somewhere in that area. And I was the typical boy that followed his dad. know, dad was superhero at the time. So whatever he was doing, I wanted to do. And, um, he went up in the attic for something. And so I was going to climb up the attic and, you know, I guess I didn't have a good balance, but I was almost to the top.

And I slipped and fell head first into, or onto the, the tile floor. And I still remember it was so traumatic. I still remember that. And, you know, my mom even says that, you know, she remember hearing this loud crack and she was, I think she was in the kitchen. And of course they rushed me to the hospital, but, yeah, it just happens, you know, something simple like that. Just I slipped off the ladder and, know, that could have been very

very dangerous. Well, you know, we grew up in the eighties and nineties, but you know, I don't think I ever owned a helmet my entire childhood. You know, I grew up in the country, rode horses, four wheelers, dirt bikes, did all the things and not dirt bikes, but mountain bikes. And, know, and we never did. My mother would say, don't hit your head. Like that was our warning. Like don't do it. And she's like, if you fall,

like don't hit your head. And I'm like, okay, that's my, that was my advocacy growing up. But you know, we didn't think about it. And I joke around, you know, I'm cracked my tailbone quite a few times with falls, but at least I feel that way and not on my head. But all that to say, like it just wasn't a thing back then. You know, you just didn't. And especially in a small town and everybody's poor. And I don't think they even sold.

bike helmets at Walmart. know? You remember the mama seatbelt when we didn't have to wear seatbelts? yeah. It was just that. We didn't even have seatbelts. I mean, of course we're not going to have helmets, but it's...

Speaker 2 (25:30.924)

the car without a seatbelt.

yeah. It wasn't like you didn't have to have it. But you know, I remember when our daughter was small and she didn't have, she was in like a, don't know, upper elementary and she didn't have a helmet on. She's just riding around on the street. She wasn't like, you know, jumping anything. She's just welcome. And somebody came over and like, your child doesn't have a helmet and like shamed me for not having a helmet on, but I didn't grow up with one.

So I didn't think about it. I'm like, okay, I guess we've to go to Walmart and get a helmet. Everybody in Franklin thinks we're bad parents. But it's just that change of mentality of shifting from us country bumpkins not having to wear one to this is an essential. This is an essential. You're on paved roads, especially. Didn't your mom get kicked by a horse in the head or something? Yeah, issues.

That was the past couple of years. My mom's had horses for literally like 70 years and she had one kick her in the head a couple of years ago. She had a new horse and was being cranky and just turned around and kicked her when she was doing a treatment on it. And yeah, had to have surgery big time. was a big mess. but, mean, but again, she's fine now. She's fine God. Fortunately. But I mean, that could have been really bad.

I mean, it ended up hitting her up in here, but I six inches away, it could have been her head. But even in like horseback riding, you put it on to get on the horse, you know, but you don't put it on when you're working on the horse, when you're brushing the horse.

Speaker 2 (27:11.138)

You know, we should be thinking about that if the horse, especially if you're behind the horse.

Yeah. So I mean, you just, you just never know. So it's, a different mentality that has, it's come a long way in the past 25, 40 years.

long way and then you it's still a long way to go because I have boys who are 21 years old right and they think they're invincible they want to wear a helmet need to wear a helmet you need to protect your brain you don't understand how valuable your brain is and how hard it is to heal it

yes.

Speaker 1 (27:41.176)

You only have one. Right now we only have one. We change. We have one right now. I no idea what AI can do. That's right. Is there a story that resonates with you or one that you remember that has impacted you?

It's about technology and...

Speaker 2 (28:00.852)

in individuals that I've met or in my own life.

either.

Yeah, there's a couple. I have an individual who involved in our community council was Mindy like you riding four wheelers, you know, on big property and went over something and completely flipped back and landed, hit his head, was life flighted. Poor parents, right? Teenager, life flighted somewhere and was fine after that. Several years later as an adult, same individual was

doing some surveying on houses and was on scaffolding and fell 30 feet. So brain injury, but also broken bones and multiple injuries to the body. And that's a long time of healing. And this individual is amazing, super articulate, well studied, done a lot of research and is doing all the right things for his recovery. And you would look at him and he's an attractive young man, well spoken. You would never know that he's had a brain injury.

But the things that he deals with individually in his recovery, people can't see.

Speaker 1 (29:10.348)

Yeah. I would love to hear like the full process of someone, do have a brain injury. They're just, they don't know what to do next. And, if they come across your side or they connect with you guys, what all can you do for that individual to get them started?

If you have a brain injury and it's a new brain injury, go to the doctor right away. Go see some professional person and get direction and the care that you need. If it's an injury that's put you in the hospital and you've had surgery and things like that, or maybe you've just stayed in the hospital for your recovery and then you go to a post-acute care facility, an inpatient rehabilitation center, somewhere like Vanderbilt-Stalwart Rehabilitation Hospital, when you leave that facility,

then what you can do is make sure that you have the next steps in your rehabilitation. Where are you going to go for outpatient physical therapy, OT therapy, speech therapy? Make sure you've got that. But in that interim to connect, you can call our national 800 number. And that goes to two individuals who are amazing, one of which has had a brain injury, and they can direct you to resources anywhere in the country. So if somebody's outside of Tennessee listening to this,

It is available all across the country. You can get there on our website. It's called the National Brain Injury Information Center. You can also email them. So you can start getting connected to resources by doing that. In Tennessee, have another layer. There are seven state brain injury service coordinators, and they are amazing. They have a certain number of counties each assigned to them. Through our website, you can go also.

and click through to find a service coordinator and fill out a form. And that will send your information directly to your service coordinator based on where you live. And they will reach back out to you within two days and they can help you find legal resources, the medical support you need in the community. They are not doctors. They're not gonna provide doctor type information. They are a person that will help you navigate the resources that you need and guide you. They'll stay with you.

Speaker 2 (31:26.062)

for as long as you need. So you can email and call with them as many times as you need to in your recovery. And those individuals also have access to support groups. And I do too, so you can call me as well. One of our coordinators leads to virtual support groups with anyone in our state can join. And I was just on the one on Tuesday talking about our organization and connecting with individuals there, but they do...

just once a month where they just get together and they talk. And then there's another meeting for that same group that's art therapy. Just for fun, you don't have to be an artist, just show up and there's gonna be an artist that's gonna be on the call with you that's gonna walk you through something simple and fun to do as a group. And then there's other ones that meet in person across the state as well. So that's where I would start. And I tell this to my kids as well as I remind my parents, we are the CEO of our own health.

And this is my personal opinion. This is not related to the Brain Injury Association of America or Tennessee chapter, but it's important that we advocate for ourselves, that we are allowed voice for our own care, that we hire the doctor that's going to be treating us. And we have to voice our own opinions and make sure that the doctor understands how we're feeling and what we need and seek out all the different kinds of doctors or therapists that you need and tell them what you're experiencing so that they can best help you.

and get those second opinions or third opinions if you need to. mean, our daughter has gotten sick a couple of times and well, one is she's type one diabetic and going into that, like we didn't know anything. We don't know anybody in our family. We were so lost on like how to even take care of our child, you know, and it was very scary and having those, just those groups.

that being able to like, I actually formed a Facebook group for Williamson County parents who were like me and just to bounce things off of each other. Like, what do you do if your kids, like my daughter dances eight hours a week? Like, how can I do this? And just having other people in that community that understood, even though your situation may be a little bit different, but just having those sounding boards are so therapeutic themselves and educational.

Speaker 1 (33:49.762)

So yeah, I always tell people, find your group, find the advocacy group that will feed the issue and strengthen numbers.

Yeah, absolutely. like you all, find us on social media. Follow us on LinkedIn. Follow us on Facebook. Sign up to get our monthly newsletter. There's a newsletter specific for Tennessee. We take the national news of the Brain Injury Association of America sends out. We put it in our newsletter and we add some local information to it. So it's a great way to find out what's going on in our state and also great ways for providers to find out about what education we have coming up or

resources for caregivers and survivors. For example, on our website, everything for a caregiver or survivor is free. So if you want to listen to a webinar, you know, or connect with people, that's what it's there for. We're here for you.

And what's that website address?

Right, go to B-I-A-U-S-A dot O-R-G. And in Tennessee, you can find your local and there's a tab for that and you can go and you can click on Tennessee. But if you're not in Tennessee or somewhere else, you can go to the state where you are and click on that to find your resources.

Speaker 1 (35:02.786)

Does every state have a chapter?

No, I would say likely most states have some type of brain injury organization, but Brain Injury Association of America is in 33 states and going to more every day. So Tennessee used to be an affiliated joined as a state when I started as a state chapter when I started and now we're going to California next, which is exciting. That's a big state that doesn't have one. So we need to get out to California. Yeah, we're working to.

Okay.

Speaker 2 (35:33.486)

expand the resources and expand our presence so that we can reach more individuals. There are 64 million Americans that have a brain injury.

64 million?

It's a lot of people, right? And just think about 25,000 per year. It's not the total number of brain injuries in Tennessee. And I've tried to find that number. Now, I haven't been able to find a number that says this is how many live in Tennessee with a brain injury, but I know there's 25,000 new brain injuries each year in Tennessee. There's a lot of individuals in Tennessee.

And I would say probably a lot of those are full functioning individuals that you would meet and not even know. Wow.

wouldn't even know. Or they might be dealing with something that they don't share with you. Right? you wouldn't know.

Speaker 1 (36:19.862)

Right. Now, how does your organization, I know you talked before about fundraising and different things like that. What is your, do you have like events or anything like that? Or is it more corporate giving? How do you get most of your financials?

Well, right now what we're working on is grant money. So if a person has a family foundation or an individual just wants to give, they can go to our website and they can donate and I'll get a link for you that you can link in the podcast as well directly to our chapter. We will be doing events in the future. I'm just here now two months in my role. So my first role is to get this community council up and running. So anybody that's interested in joining our community council should reach out to me.

And I will talk to them about what's entailed in that. But as we start to form that community council, our outreach and fundraising will be connecting with individuals who want to donate, connecting with corporations who want to donate and have an interest in what we're doing. Grant money, both from family foundations and corporations that have a nonprofit affiliate with them that gives money. And then we will be doing a big event here in the next couple of years.

that's called Luminary of the Year. honor an individual who's made a big impact in the brain injury space and it'll be a gala-like event. So come in in the future.

So you'll have like volunteer opportunities and everything.

Speaker 2 (37:46.702)

We will do have that. And also we have peer-to-peer fundraising where if someone says they want to share their story and they want to do that on Facebook or they want to do it through one of our peer-to-peer campaigns, they can do that as well. And that's a really powerful way to share a message and to give people the opportunity to support important work that's being done and support the individual.

Okay, so you've been here two months. What brought you? What inspired you to join this organization?

Well, having played sports all my life and have kids who played sports, I've had concussions, my kids have had concussions, my mom suffered one. I know tons of people who've also had the same. I have a family friend whose daughter is three and she fell and hit her head and she was one that got knocked out and then started throwing up and so they had to take her. You know, before I started in this role, I was aware of it, but I didn't realize how much a brain injury can impact an individual's

individuals, excuse me, entire life, as well as the whole family. So I was passionate about getting involved. I love science. I have no science background other than what I took in high school. Right. But I have a psychology background in college and I've always loved science and fascinated by the medical field. And now I wish I would have gone that direction. I don't I didn't think I was smart enough, honestly. That would be my do over. But it fascinates me and I love making a difference for people.

I we had do-overs.

Speaker 2 (39:16.694)

And especially in the medical field, I've spent all of my nonprofit career working for health related nonprofit organizations. And Misty, I worked for one that impacts your daughter a few years back. So that's a great organization as well. So I'm just passionate about helping people and anything medical is also interesting to me. So it kind of all comes together here for me at the Brain Injury Association of America. So I'm just grateful to be here and love connecting with individuals and reaching out, doing that community outreach and getting to know the people that

we're working to support.

Is there some legislation that you guys are working on now in particular?

Well, the one I mentioned earlier is that cognitive therapy one is on, but there's always legislation that comes up on something that might rise up. I think in Texas, this is outside of our state, but they have a state TBI waiver and they were going to rescind it. And so my colleague down there and the executive director in Texas rallied the troops down there and they went and they made their voices heard and they got a stay on it. So stuff like that comes up all the time.

So I anticipate that we're gonna have things that are gonna come up throughout the year where we're gonna need to call on our full team to be like, hey, email your representative, make a phone call, tell them your story, tell them why it's important to you and ask them for this particular, whether it's a stay or new legislation that we're trying to move.

Speaker 1 (40:42.546)

And, you know, we often hear, that emailing, does that actually go to them? it, does it. Do they read it?

I'm somebody there is reading it, whether it's a staffer or whether it's the representative, the representative. It makes a difference that and also the volume. So one person sending it out, they're going to see it. But when you have hundreds of people emailing about the same topic and calling about the same topic, it's it's a louder voice. And, we can do a lot individually, but we can do so much more when we come together and raise our voices together.

does make a difference.

Speaker 1 (41:18.742)

Because that's votes. So if they're going, wow, we have 500 people that have emailed us about this. mean, this is important to our constituents.

Just think about the 25,000 every year. Multiply that by how many people are in Tennessee, right? That's a lot of people impacted. That is lot of

So what does success look like in the coming years for you?

that's a great question. Thank you. Success for me will be having this community council up and running, fully engaged and working in those four areas, that community outreach, the advocacy, the provider education and raising money so that we can do more. When that's fully functioning and we're starting to see money come in to support our mission and we have all of the state healthcare providers that are connected to us and know about our resources.

And families know about our resources so that survivors can be connected through those support groups or to those service coordinators. The information is out there where we're getting changes in terms of concussion awareness. That'll be really important so we can prevent as many concussions as possible. We get kids wearing helmets, whether they're horseback riding, whether they're riding a bike, whether they're riding a skateboard, protecting that noggin or melon as we call it, creating a greater awareness, getting more people.

Speaker 2 (42:35.95)

subscribe to our newsletter and to our social media just makes a big impact.

Do y'all do any types of drives like a helmet drive or anything like that?

We have not started that yet. I do know that our Chattanooga group is doing quite a bit around helmet drives. I think as we start to come into Concussion Awareness Month, our organization will be messaging more about that, but not in terms of like, donate helmets and we're giving them away. We haven't done that yet.

Speaker 1 (43:14.742)

I do come up with something good every once in a while. Yeah. Yeah. You better watch out. She may have you started up. isn't that the rule? Right. You don't want to, you don't want to introduce too much. get in charge of it. That's right. I gotta be careful.

If you bring it up, you own it. Already on that community council, I love it.

Oh, you know how many I'm on now? I'm just kidding.

You're doing great work with your podcast, spreading the message about so many great organizations. Thank you for that work you do.

Thank you, thank you. It's truly a pleasure doing it because we get to meet and learn about so many people. because we didn't know anything about this organization and it's something that hits home. I would almost think that everybody knows somebody who's affected by it. Yeah. And, you know, if you, you know, this

Speaker 2 (44:05.827)

I would think.

Speaker 1 (44:11.348)

If you know somebody that may have symptoms, feel free to reach out and share, maybe this podcast, but at least share the website so that they can go and look on it and see if there's any assistance that they need. One of the final things that I was curious about, going back to the insurance, is there...

Is there any assistance because I know that weighs on a lot of people's minds like, know, I know I probably need help, but I just don't have the money to do it. And especially right now. there any, you know, you said private, what private plans or private.

pay the individual paying for their own insurance.

Okay, if they didn't have that, is there any type of resource or anything that they could do to get help?

You know, that's a great question. We don't provide financial assistance directly to an individual and most nonprofit organizations don't, but there are some groups that do do that. So I think our service providers could help connect to groups that might offer some financial assistance in that way. It's definitely something that we need to make people aware of. If you are injured on the job and you're lucky, well, not lucky because you got injured on the job by any means, but you do.

Speaker 2 (45:35.246)

often get workers comp and that's pivotal for an individual with a brain injury. If not and you are injured elsewhere and you can't go to work anymore, you lose your insurance and you lose your income often. And that's hard on family. It's hard on an individual. it's really something that's important to...

figure out in our state, how do we get support? And I think that's part of what that state TBI waiver is, is how do we help individuals with the medical resources that they need? I need to dig into it a little bit more, but part of what we're trying to do is how do we support survivors and caregivers in the very best way we can?

That's good. Yeah, there's a lot of work ahead. But I do think that we're making a lot of great advances on learning about the brain. yeah. And the more that we learn, the more we can heal. So I'm excited about the future of it.

the work ahead.

Speaker 2 (46:43.182)

That's true, Jason, in all medical, right? We're learning, learning, learning, and there's this curve. You start to learn more, but then it starts to go like this. And so I think we're in a great place with all medical to have some, some significant changes and advancements for individuals that are afflicted by all kinds of things.

I mean what we've seen in our daughter for type 1 diabetes in the past eight years just blows our mind. She pretty much has an external pancreas on her belt, know, you know the finger pricks and but it's we're seeing that in everything like what's going to happen with brain injuries or what you know we're seeing a neurofeedback we're seeing all these different kinds of things that are stimulating the brain so it's an exciting time in the medical field.

It is exciting. was just talking to this physical sorry, Mindy.

no, you're fine. was just going to say, know, what used to be not really a death sentence, but you know, just a permanent injury may be something that can be reignited in a completely normal life.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:44.428)

Right, talking about recovery and ability to move around, I was talking to a physical therapist who's developing a system that monitors your gait. And so an individual with brain injury might have something connecting to his legs not working correctly or not functioning correctly. And this technology can monitor your brain and your gait and give you feedback on your gait so that you can correct your gait. And once you learn how your feet need to move, you can...

have a more regular pattern of walking, which then makes it more safe for you to move around so that you won't fall and have another brain injury. stuff like that's coming out all the time.

I love it. I love it. That is amazing. Well, Stacey, before we wrap up, was there anything else that you would like to share with the listeners or?

Well, I would just love to have listeners that are interested in talking to me more reach out to me via email or phone. I think both of those are listed on our website, but I can also give those to you. Jason and Mindy to put in any of the show notes, but I'd love to hear from individuals. Anyone that wants to be involved in our Community Council and want to know more about that. I welcome that and we welcome all your donations as well.

Awesome, I love it. Well, Stacey, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today and thank you for just the incredible work that you're doing, even though you've been in it two months, you're making an impact, I'm sure, but also the incredible work that everybody that's being a part of this organization, it's definitely impacting lives and I look forward to the advancements to come and see how that will pan out. But thank you so much for taking the time with us today.

Speaker 2 (49:24.398)

Thank you, it's my pleasure, my honor to be here. Really appreciate the two of you.

So if today's conversation resonated with you, we encourage you to learn more at BIAUSA.org and you can find the state chapter. Whether it's volunteering, supporting legislation or joining the community council that she was talking about, there are so many different ways you can help. Thanks for joining us today, friends. And until next time, remember, you matter.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope you found inspiration on this episode and are reminded that no matter where you are or what you do, you matter. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and even share it with your friends and family. Also, stay connected with us on social media and tune in next time.

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