SCR 17-BRAIN INJURY AWARENESS MONTH: MARCH 2008  1:35:54 PM CHAIR DAVIS announced SCR 17 to be up for consideration. SENATOR McGUIRE, sponsor of SCR 17, said the reason this is important to her is that her brother was in a car accident in 1992 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. At that time Alaska was ill prepared to respond to her family's need for information. The point of the resolution is to make March of 2008 Brain Injury Awareness Month, to raise awareness of the problem and bring attention to prevention, treatment and the support that is available to victims and their families. Brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability among children and young adults in Alaska. An estimated 12,000 people state wide have suffered from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and most have suffered in silence. 1:38:16 PM SENATOR McGUIRE continued that the problem is often overlooked because victims of traumatic brain injury are not often encountered in public and the families of victims don't tend to talk about it. Although passing a resolution cannot fix the problem in any immediate way, passing a resolution and the testimony that goes with it can highlight a really important problem. 1:40:42 PM SENATOR DYSON said he had asked before whether the committee would consider making it "Brain Injury Month" rather than "Traumatic Brain Injury Month" in light of the fact that Alaska leads the nation in non-traumatic brain injuries, particularly pre-natal alcohol syndrome. He wondered whether the committee had considered his request to make that change in the focus of this month. SENATOR McGUIRE pointed out that the title of the resolution is "Brain Injury Awareness Month," but agreed that it would be helpful to offer more statistics about non-traumatic brain injury and said she was willing to do so. She added that the Brain Injury Network has evolved to include a focus on non- traumatic brain injuries and would be able to provide more information. 1:42:19 PM JILL HODGES, Executive Director, Alaska Brain Injury Network, Anchorage AK, said it is important to keep traumatic injury in focus because the state has begun to develop capacity for other sorts of brain injuries such as fetal alcohol syndrome (FASD) and stroke, but awareness and services for traumatic brain injury were still very limited. She felt that if they could beef up the system for traumatic brain injury, the other acquired brain injuries would also benefit from increases to state funded brain injury programs. 1:43:19 PM SENATOR DYSON said he inferred that, although non-traumatic brain injury is hugely important, they would prefer not to dilute their efforts here away from traumatic brain injury. MS. HODGES agreed. 1:44:38 PM SENATOR THOMAS commented that he shares the same concerns that Senator Dyson articulated, although he was unwilling to hold up the resolution based on his concerns. He stated that there is a fair amount of information available about traumatic brain injury and non-traumatic brain injury. Both are important and should be emphasized. The title is already appropriate and he encouraged them to continue to look at the possibility of broadening the focus as the resolution moves forward. 1:45:57 PM RICHARD WARRINGTON, Ambassador, Brain Injury Association of America, Anchorage AK, said he is the survivor of a traumatic brain injury that occurred over 30 years ago and is still disabled from his injury. He encouraged the committee to pass the resolution and apprised them that congress was also considering a resolution to create a national brain injury awareness month. 1:47:10 PM MARY WARRINGTON, Board Member, Alaska Brain Injury Network, Anchorage AK, said her two brothers suffered brain injuries and people need to be made aware of the problem. SENATOR THOMAS moved to report SCR 17 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There being no objection, the motion carried.