BrainLine.org Shines Light On Services Provided By SLPs And Audiologists To People With Brain Injury

(Rockville, MD - May 6, 2009) For its May Better Hearing and Speech Month edition, BrainLine News, the electronic newsletter of BrainLine.org, features roles played by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and audiologists in rehabilitating people who have a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

BrainLine News has nearly 1,000 subscribers and is the monthly newsletter of BrainLine.org, a national multimedia project offering information and resources about preventing, treating, and living with a TBI. BrainLine.org welcomes, on average, approximately 25,000 unique visitors per month.

In the United States, approximately 1.4 million reports of TBI are seen annually. A TBI is caused by an injury to the head and can range from mild to moderate to severe.

Featured in the May BrainLine News is:

• An ASHA-produced video (www.brainline.org/multimedia/results_video.php#id1439) that focuses on ASHA SLP-members who feel that inadequate insurance benefits is the largest obstacle patients face in order to receive TBI related services.
  
  
• The story of Carolyn McCormack (brainline.org/content/2009/04/cognitive-therapy-gave-me-the-anchor-i-needed.html) and her struggle with her insurance company. After Carolyn suffered a TBI from a car accident and was denied rehabilitation therapy by her insurance company, she appealed and won.
  
  
• Yvonne Hoffman explaining how a "little bump on the head" gave her a concussion and constant migraines brainline.org/content/2009/04/the-intake-nurse-mentioned-that-i-must-have-a-concussion-mdash-i-thought-so-what-little-did-i-know.html. Cognitive therapy from an SLP helped her recover from her injury.
  
  
• A podcast featuring Lee Woodruff, wife of former CBS anchor Bob Woodruff, who suffered a TBI while covering the Iraq war. The Woodruff's also have a daughter who is hearing impaired. In the podcast Lee Woodruff calls SLPs and audiologists her "lifeline".

ASHA's collaboration with BrainLine is ongoing. The site will help promote ASHA's TBI related hearing loss webinar that is scheduled for October 2009 and regularly posts articles about TBI from ASHA's journals and The ASHA Leader, ASHA's major membership publication.

In the past, BrainLine's "Ask The Expert" has featured ASHA's Director of Health Care Services Janet Brown, MA, CCC-SLP on topics surrounding recovery from a TBI.

About the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 135,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems including swallowing disorders.