Creating Connections: This Brain Injury Awareness Week, Social Futures and The Brain Injury Community are bringing picnic events to Northern NSW.
Brain Injury Awareness Week: 19 – 25 August 2024
Our whole world, the way we perceive ourselves and others, is dictated by our brain. So, what would life be like, living with a brain injury? More than 700,000 Australians have an acquired brain injury, with experiences so diverse, that each are likely to answer that question differently.
For Angela Kalantzis, founder of The Brain Injury Community, damage to her parietal lobe caused ongoing aphasia, fatigue and problems with language. She says it is a hidden disability and one which is a lonely space to exist in.
“When I first had my accident, I was literally alone. I was discharged from hospital very, very quickly with no supports in place. It was literally – ‘go home, if pain persists, call your doctor’ kind of thing,” said Angela.
“I did get to a very dark place. There was a suicide attempt, and there was a stay in the mental health ward.”
“I remember one of the psychologists in the hospital sat me down and said ‘Angela. You have a brain injury. That is why you are feeling the way that you are. That is why you are depressed.’
Brain injuries can occur from any number of things – car accidents, sporting injuries, assaults, falls, strokes or haemorrhages. Often once the physical injuries that can be seen have healed, supports tend to slip away. It is a disability which is commonly overlooked, and, like Angela, many people can fall through health system gaps.
This inspired Angela to create The Brain Injury Community.
Connection for people living with brain injury
The Brain Injury Community is a first point of call for people with brain injury leaving the hospital system, linking them in with supports and therapies. But its primary is to help people make friends.
“It sounds so simple, but this little thing is just so important. Because it helps to connect people back into their community, it helps them to feel part of the world again.
It turns a hidden disability into something which is seen and accepted, and that is incredibly healing,” said Angela.
Social Futures has partnered with The Brain Injury Community to help them deliver picnic events in Northern NSW. The picnics are a way for people to connect and make friends and to ease the social isolation and loneliness so many people with brain injury feel.