TBI Executive Order

Dear Brain Injury Stakeholder,

As you may recall, in December 2008 Governor Ritter signed an Executive Order on Traumatic Brain Injury. This Executive Order (EO) required the Executive Directors from a wide variety of state agencies to designate a member of their professional staff to represent their agency in the development of a coordinated plan and response to address the needs of Coloradans who have experienced a TBI. These designees became members of the Executive Order on TBI Work Group. The work group was tasked with developing recommendations specific to areas outlined by the Governor in the Executive Order. The work group met for 8 months to develop a comprehensive list of recommendations. The work group considered both the recent Needs and Resource Assessment and the 5 Year State Action Plan in developing their report. Additionally, they worked closely through the BI Collaborative with representatives from BIAC, Advisory Board, Trust Fund Board, and private agencies to ensure a public private partnership.

As required in the EO, the work group developed a comprehensive report including their recommendations. This report was delivered to the Governor and his staff on December 1, 2010. The Governor is currently reviewing the report and as such has not yet endorsed the recommendations provided.

Moving forward, the TBI Program is working with the Colorado Department of Human Services to develop an on-going work group comprised of state agency personnel to assist us with moving forward with the recommendations!

TBI Executive Order

When BIAC Peer Advocate, Mark Condon awoke from his month-long coma, self-consciousness came slowly and haltingly. So, too, did the state services available to him.

"I felt as though I was in prison because I could do some things but not other things," said Condon, who was hit by a drunken driver in 1981 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. "People didn't see my prison bars. My disability was invisible."

For years, the estimated 100,000 people in Colorado living with a traumatic brain injury have had to navigate through the state's services for the disabled without a centralized contact point to help them. That changed recently in 2008 when Gov. Bill Ritter signed an executive order requiring 11 state agencies to collaborate on their efforts to help brain injury patients. That means that rehabilitation programs, job training services, transportation services and programs aimed at helping veterans will all be linked, making it easier for those who suffer from brain injuries to get the help they need. The order will "destroy all silos that can keep state agencies from talking to each other" Governor Ritter said at the signing ceremony.

"It is an important step forward for people with traumatic brain injury, for their families and for other stake holders," Ritter said. "...We know we can do a better job."

The push behind the executive order began in early 2008, when members of the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado approached the Department of Human Services about greater collaboration between state agencies. In addition to the executive order, state Sen. Nancy Spence is working on a bill to help the state's Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund. There are 150 people on a waiting list to receive help from the Trust Fund, which receives money from a surcharge on speeding and drunken-driving tickets. The timing of support for patients with a brain injury is particularly significant given the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where traumatic brain injury is the "signature injury", said Bill Levis, president of the BIAC board. One study showed that close to 20 percent of soldiers returning to Fort Carson had suffered a brain injury.