Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article on TBI

[Gene van den Bosch]

Friday, September 11, 2009
Last updated 7:47 a.m. PT

Traffic fines help treat brain injuries
New law raising millions
By LARRY LANGE
SPECIAL TO SEATTLEPI.COM

Dana Lough, her mobility slowed by a brain injury, has needed a lot of help over the years.

At 14 she was paralyzed after her head was slammed into a window during a car collision, and she underwent therapy to re-learn how to move around.

"I can walk and write, but it's very slow," says Lough, now 48 and working a job. But after more than three decades she is still in therapy and wearing a brace that helps her walk. She can't drive a car. "My muscles are learning how they should be."

That fateful 1975 collision that hurt Lough happened in California, but it's Washington state traffic tickets that are providing a major source of money to a group that helps people like Lough, who now lives in Seattle.


New law

A 2007 law puts $2 from each citation fine in the state into a state fund, from which money can be drawn for assistance programs for people like her.

Traumatic brain injuries can result from trauma like Lough suffered or from heart attack, carbon-monoxide poisoning, surgery, drug abuse or exposure to toxic chemicals. Effects can include temporary or longer-term memory loss or distortions in perception or judgment, even violent behavior.

Advocates say many brain-injury victims need help just coping because the injury can result in physical impairments that affect memory and attention spans, and cause behavior changes ranging from fatigue to unpredictable mood swings.

"There's a lot of frustration, there's a lot of emotion. That can lead to unpredictable situations," said Mary Chapman, interim director of the Brain Injury Association of Washington.

Falls and vehicle collisions accounted for more than 60 percent of deaths from traumatic brain injury, according to the latest state state figures, and for more than 80 percent of hospitalizations statewide. About 1,300 people died as a result of such injuries in the state in 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available. The state estimates that about 117,000 people in the state live with injuries, and that every year more than 25,000 people are treated for them and more than 1,700 people are disabled from them.

Bill Moss, director of home and community services with the state Department of Social and Health Services, said he thinks the numbers of injured are growing based on reported hospitalizations. The state does not keep a registry for people with brain injuries.

State lawmakers approved the set-aside in traffic fines for brain-injury programs because, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about half the injuries result from vehicle collisions. Several other states, including Colorado and Florida, also use traffic citation fees to finance traumatic-brain-injury programs.

Rep. Dennis Flannigan, D-Tacoma, was the prime sponsor of a bill that set up the council and provided for the use of the traffic-citation money. He said he was alerted to the issue by an injured constituent and became empathetic after meeting others.

"I saw family after family beset with issues but not a solution," Flannigan said. Even when injuries occur "we survive more now," he said, which can mean ongoing medical expense, counseling and emotional problems.

The ticket money diversion has raised $2.5 million during the state's current two-year budget cycle. The money is placed in an account administered by the department and disbursed based on recommendations by a state advisory council on traumatic brain injury.

Of the amount raised, $2 million is used to help local support groups for injured people. More than $172,000 financed adult day-care staffers to help assess the needs of the injured, and the state spent $200,000 for a collision-prevention film aimed at teens.

This year $121,000 of the brain association's yearly budget, about 37 percent, comes from traffic-citation money. The association used the cash to add staff and operating hours for a telephone help line, and to pay for explanatory brochures for injury victims and families looking for help, Chapman said. She said the money also helped her group advertise the help line -- and use of it has increased.

"We estimate that we are able to help 40 percent more survivors due to the additional funding," she said.

New brochures offer victims suggestions for coping with memory loss and ways to reason their way out of situations that could otherwise drive them to frustration and violence.

Washington's system survived the budget cutting during this year's legislative session, though there were cuts in some adult day-care programs used by brain injury victims.

A December report from the Social and Health Services agency recommended that the council, which decides how the money is spent, be authorized to do fund-raising work, apply for grants and get private financial aid.

Lough said she received emotional support and help from the association while attending Pierce College. It gave her needed emotional support, she said, and a place to meet other injured people, including her husband Mike, 54, who also suffered brain injury at a young age. She became active in the association, now serves on its board. Within the past two years an association rehabilitation expert helped her cope with a threatening letter from an acquaintance.

"It's helped me tremendously with friendships and learning how to relate and get along with people," Dana Lough said of the help from the group. "It has propelled me to a position in life where I am able to deal with my brain injury."

Without the ticket-revenue money the association "wouldn't be able to help as much," she said.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The Brain Injury Association of Washington

Helpline, 1-877-824-1766; Association office [phone]; Seattle, [phone].