HELP COMMITTEE APPROVES BILL TO TREAT TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

Washington, D.C. –U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today said the HELP Committee approved legislation to help treat Americans living with traumatic brain injury (TBI). “Each year, approximately 1.5 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury, causing significant, often lifelong and sometimes fatal, disability and discomfort,” Enzi said. “The ‘Reauthorization of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act’ will bolster programs to help people live with the effects of a traumatic brain injury.”The “Reauthorization of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act,” S. 793, will establish a study through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to determine the incidence and prevalence of traumatic brain injury, identify common therapeutic interventions, and develop rehabilitation guidelines. It reauthorizes grant programs to coordinate TBI services, and continues valuable research programs conducted by the NIH. It also calls for a study to determine the extent to which soldiers who have acquired a brain injury integrate into their communities, examine the extent to which care is coordinated, and provide information about appropriate employment, housing, rehabilitation, and other services. “The costs associated with having a TBI are high, and this legislation helps give people access to the therapies and interventions that are needed,” Enzi said. According to the CDC, of the 1.5 million Americans who sustain a traumatic TBI each year, around 50,000 die and another 80,000 to 90,000 experience long-term or life- long disabilities as a result. Among children between birth and age 14, there are approximately 475,000 TBI’s a year, resulting in some of the highest numbers of injuries among children under the age of five. ####