Maximizing Employment Success

After Brain InjuryJune 12, 2012

A Few Things About the Brain Pop Quiz

• How many people sustain a TBI annually? a) 60,000 b)1.7 million c) 3.5 million

• What part of the brain is critical to problem solving, judgment and regulation of emotions? a) occipital lobe b) brain stem c) frontal lobe

• What is the last part of the brain to develop to maturity? a) parietal lobe b) occipital lobe c) frontal lobe

A Few Things About Brain Injury and Employment

• In general, unemployment rates for individuals following TBI range from 10-70%

• Employment rates become higher over time. (Schonbrun, Sales & Kampfe, 2007)

• In a 2003 study, Johnston and colleagues reported for 35 individuals followed, employment decreased from 69%-31% one year post injury and average monthly income declined by 51%

Return to Work-The Big PictureResearch findings are variable

• "Accounting for differences in measurement and the impact of injury severity on the probability of returning to work, it appears that more than half of survivors of TBI become unemployed as a consequence of their condition” Evidence Report 1999

• One study found that 75% of individuals with traumatic brain injury who return to work lose their jobs within 90 days without supports. (Sniezek)

According to Israeli researchers, unemployment among individual

post TBI “appears to be a complex interaction between pre-morbid

characteristics, injury factors, post injury impairments, and personal and environmental factors” the

researchers concluded that such an array of factors made predicting

return to work difficult

Today we will share tools you can use to help people living with brain

injury go to work

• Handouts- in your packet and on the Mental Hygiene Administration website

• Opportunity to ask questions and present cases to the panel at the end of the day, feel free to use the Case Review Form in your packet to organize your thoughts