Coming Home: A Field Guide (Part 9: Assistance for Traumatic Brain Injury)

Now that we’ve discussed in the previous post what exactly Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is, let’s talk about getting a diagnosis and receiving care. First comes screening – which you should have gotten already, but everyone who’s ever served knows that everything the military is supposed to do, well, they don’t do.

A positive response to any of these questions should prompt you to consider seeking treatment. This information is taken from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, which “has been designated as the primary TBI subject matter experts (SMEs) for the DoD and VA.”

1. Did you have any injury(ies) during your deployment from any of the following?

(Check all that apply):

A. Fragment

B. Bullet

C. Vehicular (any type of vehicle, including airplane)

D. Fall

E. Blast (Improvised Explosive Device, RPG, Land mine, Grenade, etc.)

F: Other (specify): _________________

2. Did any injury you received while you were deployed result in any of the following?

(Check all that apply):

(Answering yes to any of these first five confirms that you need a TBI screening)

A. Being dazed, confused, or “seeing stars”

B. Not remembering the injury

C. Losing consciousness (knocked out) for less than a minute

D. Losing consciousness for 1 – 20 minutes

E. Losing consciousness for more than 20 minutes

(The following two questions would need to result in a clinical review)

F. Having any symptoms of concussion afterward (such as headache, dizziness, irritability, etc.)

G. Head injury

H. None of the above

3. Are you currently experiencing any of the following problems that you think might be related to a possible head injury or concussion?

(Check all that apply):

A. Headaches

B. Dizziness

C. Memory problems

D. Balance problems

E. Ringing in the ears

F. Irritability

G. Sleep problems

H. Other (specify): _____________

If you’ve read the above questionnaire and think that you might need to be screened for TBI, unfortunately, your only course is to check in with Veterans Healthcare Administration, which can oftentimes be a bureaucratic nightmare to deal with. Unless of course, you're uber rich and can afford a private clinician. 

Either way, go get looked at! If you don’t attempt to get help for your head, your brain’s health could get even more exacerbated, complicating or hindering a recovery.

For more information you should definitely check out www.traumaticbraininjury.com. You would hope that such a website with such a directly worded URL would be the go to source for everything you’re looking for, and this site definitely is. The website has all the information you would need about how the diagnosis would be determined, and what treatment would take place.

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