"Relating to establishing March 2006 as brain injury awareness month. "

Traumatic brain injuries often lead to severe disability or death. These injuries most often affect younger, more active people and are likely to have enduring physical, emotional, and financial costs.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is damage to the brain that results when the head is hit, strikes a stationary object, or is violently shaken. Depending on what area of the brain is injured, people with brain injuries may suffer from poor short-term memory and difficulty with organization concentration and judgment. Their personality may change. Family members say brain injury is one of the hardest disabilities to deal with because the survivors may look the same, but can be totally different. Alaska is the number one state, per capita, for brain injuries in the nation. Over 700 TBI's were reported in Alaska in 2003 and an estimated 12,000 Alaskans have suffered a traumatic brain injury.

This resolution is to draw awareness to traumatic brain injuries and support those that have suffered a traumatic brain injury, their families, and care providers.

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