May 08, 2023
Background
Brain injury is a leading cause of death and disability. While statistics on the prevalence of brain injury are difficult to gather, hundreds of thousands of people in Canada are living with the impacts of traumatic brain injury, stroke, concussion, brain tumour and other forms of brain injury. For example, there are 18,000 hospitalizations for traumatic brain injury, 89,000 strokes and 200,000 concussions annually in Canada.
1A brain injury is a profoundly destabilizing event that impacts nearly every aspect of a person’s life. There are many forms of brain injury and each survivor’s experience will be unique. Broadly speaking, the cognitive, physical and emotional effects can impact an individual’s activities of daily living, access to employment, social inclusion, community participation and introduce a host of new barriers. For this reason, there is a strong intersection between brain injury, mental health and addictions, with brain injury survivors disproportionately represented among those who are unhoused.
2March of Dimes Canada is a major provider of
brain injury services, funded by provincial, territorial and regional governments across Canada to deliver experienced and flexible care for people dealing with the effects of brain injury, including supportive housing, case management, system navigation, rehabilitation, life skills and social support. Through our
After Stroke program, we also provide evidence-based support and navigation tailor-made for the needs of stroke survivors, a sub-population of those living with brain injury.
As a service provider, resource and advocate for thousands of brain injury survivors each year, March of Dimes Canada sees firsthand the needed but unavailable services, and fragmented and complex systems that survivors, their families and caregivers must navigate.
Our Position
March of Dimes Canada believes Canada needs a national strategy on brain injury to support and improve awareness, prevention, and treatment, as well as the rehabilitation and recovery of people living with a brain injury. We are supportive of the work of Brain Injury Canada, the Constable Gerald Breese Centre for Traumatic Life Losses, and provincial, territorial and regional brain injury associations in advocating for such a national strategy.
March of Dimes Canada has seen that too often, there are either limited or insufficient community brain injury supports and an uneven patchwork of services region to region. Members of our community come up against numerous barriers, including information and communication being provided in a manner that is not accessible for brain injury survivors. Others have shared stories of misdiagnosis and oversight, demonstrating the need for improved awareness and training to prevent future brain injuries.
For this reason, we believe a coordinated, national approach to brain injury is vital. The national strategy should involve the collaboration of the federal, provincial and territorial governments, as well as the input and expertise of survivors, families, researchers and leaders in the field, service providers and brain injury associations. We also believe a national strategy should be inclusive of all forms of brain injury. March of Dimes Canada would be proud to participate in the development of this much-needed national strategy.
March of Dimes Canada supports
Bill C-277, the National Strategy on Brain Injuries Act, and calls upon the government of Canada to bring this bill forward for a second reading. We encourage our community members to support the advocacy for a national brain injury strategy by:
2 Jacob L Stubbs, Allen E Thornton, Jessica M Sevick, et al. “Traumatic brain injury in homeless and marginally housed individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” The Lancet Public Health, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(19)30188-4.
