The Center for Head Injury Services
Encyclopedia
The Center for Head Injury Services (commonly referred to as The Center, or CHIS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
who offers a comprehensive continuum of services in Missouri
for persons having sustained a brain injury
. They have 15 specialized, community-based programs with over 60 full- and part-time dedicated staff who deliver services to individuals with brain injuries and their families at a 20000 square feet (1,858.1 m²) facility in St. Louis, Missouri. The Center is an independent, internationally CARF-accredited non-profit organization that meets the Better Business Bureau
’s Charity Accountability Standards
.
day program for adults with head injuries. At the time, no care or therapy options existed for survivors, and most people would spend their days at home, alone, with nothing to do. This small program grew and now offers a variety of specialized services known as The Center for Head Injury Services.
The current executive director
of The Center for Head Injury Services is Donna Gunning.
This program provides specialized brain injury rehabilitation services for those with traumatic brain injuries or non-traumatic brain injuries
, including physical
, occupational
and speech therapies. A neuropsychologist works closely with the team to provide valuable assessment information to be used in the treatment program. The Medical program is focused on goals that are important to each individual – whether that be improving strength, memory, independence at home or gaining the skills to return to work or school.
Adult Day Program
People who sustain a brain injury maintain a strong sense of self and often become frustrated because they remember what they could do before their injury. The Center’s Day Programs provide them with a friendly, stimulating and safe environment where they can get together, improve their skills and have fun. Day programs also provide families with some much-needed respite time. Services can include nursing care, assistance with daily living activities, cognitive (or thinking) enrichment activities, social skills training, pre-vocational activities and community outings.
Vocational Program
Often, people are unable to return to the careers they pursued before a brain injury, but employment is an important goal for them. Evaluating strengths, weaknesses, interests, and needs, we help individuals explore different job opportunities, rebuild work skills, learn appropriate workplace behavior and develop strategies to promote successful employment.
Community Living Skills
The activities of daily living can be a challenge for those with a brain injury. The Center’s Community Living Skills program helps individuals become more independent, both at home and in community activities. Skills range from dressing oneself, cooking, cleaning, and budgeting, to time management, grocery shopping, banking, and keeping medical appointments.
Supportive Employment Program
People with brain injuries require special support obtaining and retaining employment. Together, they explore career opportunities through evaluations and real-life experiences at area businesses. They work closely with individuals to find the right job for them. They provide on-the-job training to help new employees learn their tasks. Work related coaching encourages the development of compensatory strategies, relationship management with co-workers, and supervisors, establishment of a support network. They continue follow-up with employees and employers to ensure success on the job well into the future.
Counseling
The effects of a brain injury on a person and their loved ones can be devastating. Counseling can assist with the changes and adjustment issues that can occur.
Equip Your Neighbor Partnership
This program receives gently used durable medical equipment
, such as wheelchairs and hospital beds and redistributes them to those in need, often without insurance coverage for these vital items. This is a partnership established with each of our major hospital systems, local and state elected officials, and local television stations and newspapers. Since its establishment in the St. Louis area, the Equip your Neighbor Partnership has expanded to Cleveland, Ohio
.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
who offers a comprehensive continuum of services in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
for persons having sustained a brain injury
Acquired brain injury
An acquired brain injury is brain damage caused by events after birth, rather than as part of a genetic or congenital disorder such as fetal alcohol syndrome, perinatal illness or perinatal hypoxia. ABI can result in cognitive, physical, emotional, or behavioural impairments that lead to permanent...
. They have 15 specialized, community-based programs with over 60 full- and part-time dedicated staff who deliver services to individuals with brain injuries and their families at a 20000 square feet (1,858.1 m²) facility in St. Louis, Missouri. The Center is an independent, internationally CARF-accredited non-profit organization that meets the Better Business Bureau
Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...
’s Charity Accountability Standards
BBB Wise Giving Alliance
The BBB Wise Giving Alliance is an association of charities formed by a merger of the National Charities Information Bureau and the Council of Better Business Bureaus' Foundation and its Philanthropic Advisory Service . It publishes a set of standards of accountability for charitable...
.
History
In 1986, the St. Louis Chapter of the National Head Injury Foundation created the first community-basedCommunity organization
Community organizations are civil society non-profits that operate within a single local community. They are essentially a subset of the wider group of nonprofits. Like other nonprofits they are often run on a voluntary basis and are self funded...
day program for adults with head injuries. At the time, no care or therapy options existed for survivors, and most people would spend their days at home, alone, with nothing to do. This small program grew and now offers a variety of specialized services known as The Center for Head Injury Services.
The current executive director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
of The Center for Head Injury Services is Donna Gunning.
Programs
Medical Rehabilitation ServicesThis program provides specialized brain injury rehabilitation services for those with traumatic brain injuries or non-traumatic brain injuries
Brain damage
"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
, including physical
Physical therapy
Physical therapy , often abbreviated PT, is a health care profession. Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment/intervention,and rehabilitation...
, occupational
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
and speech therapies. A neuropsychologist works closely with the team to provide valuable assessment information to be used in the treatment program. The Medical program is focused on goals that are important to each individual – whether that be improving strength, memory, independence at home or gaining the skills to return to work or school.
Adult Day Program
People who sustain a brain injury maintain a strong sense of self and often become frustrated because they remember what they could do before their injury. The Center’s Day Programs provide them with a friendly, stimulating and safe environment where they can get together, improve their skills and have fun. Day programs also provide families with some much-needed respite time. Services can include nursing care, assistance with daily living activities, cognitive (or thinking) enrichment activities, social skills training, pre-vocational activities and community outings.
Vocational Program
Often, people are unable to return to the careers they pursued before a brain injury, but employment is an important goal for them. Evaluating strengths, weaknesses, interests, and needs, we help individuals explore different job opportunities, rebuild work skills, learn appropriate workplace behavior and develop strategies to promote successful employment.
Community Living Skills
The activities of daily living can be a challenge for those with a brain injury. The Center’s Community Living Skills program helps individuals become more independent, both at home and in community activities. Skills range from dressing oneself, cooking, cleaning, and budgeting, to time management, grocery shopping, banking, and keeping medical appointments.
Supportive Employment Program
People with brain injuries require special support obtaining and retaining employment. Together, they explore career opportunities through evaluations and real-life experiences at area businesses. They work closely with individuals to find the right job for them. They provide on-the-job training to help new employees learn their tasks. Work related coaching encourages the development of compensatory strategies, relationship management with co-workers, and supervisors, establishment of a support network. They continue follow-up with employees and employers to ensure success on the job well into the future.
Counseling
The effects of a brain injury on a person and their loved ones can be devastating. Counseling can assist with the changes and adjustment issues that can occur.
Equip Your Neighbor Partnership
This program receives gently used durable medical equipment
Home medical equipment
This article discusses the definitions and types of home medical equipment , also known as durable medical equipment , prosthetics and orthotics .- HME / DMEPOS :...
, such as wheelchairs and hospital beds and redistributes them to those in need, often without insurance coverage for these vital items. This is a partnership established with each of our major hospital systems, local and state elected officials, and local television stations and newspapers. Since its establishment in the St. Louis area, the Equip your Neighbor Partnership has expanded to Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
.
See also
- Acquired brain injuryAcquired brain injuryAn acquired brain injury is brain damage caused by events after birth, rather than as part of a genetic or congenital disorder such as fetal alcohol syndrome, perinatal illness or perinatal hypoxia. ABI can result in cognitive, physical, emotional, or behavioural impairments that lead to permanent...
- Head injuryHead injuryHead injury refers to trauma of the head. This may or may not include injury to the brain. However, the terms traumatic brain injury and head injury are often used interchangeably in medical literature....
- Spinal cord injurySpinal cord injuryA spinal cord injury refers to any injury to the spinal cord that is caused by trauma instead of disease. Depending on where the spinal cord and nerve roots are damaged, the symptoms can vary widely, from pain to paralysis to incontinence...
- Mental retardationMental retardationMental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
- Rehabilitation Act of 1973
- Rehabilitation Services AdministrationRehabilitation Services AdministrationThe Rehabilitation Services Administration is a federal agency under the United States Department of Education. It was established to administer portions of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973....
- Assertive community treatmentAssertive Community TreatmentAssertive community treatment, or ACT, is an intensive and highly integrated approach for community mental health service delivery. ACT programs serve people whose symptoms of mental illness result in severe functional difficulties that interfere with their ability to achieve personally meaningful...
- Rehabilitation (neuropsychology)Rehabilitation (neuropsychology)Rehabilitation of sensory and cognitive function typically involves methods for retraining neural pathways or training new neural pathways to regain or improve neurocognitive functioning that has been diminished by disease or traumatic injury....
- Rehabilitation counselingRehabilitation counselingRehabilitation Counseling is focused on helping people who have disabilities achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals through a counseling process...
External links
- Official website
- Equip Your Neighbor Partnership
- Missouri Head Injury Advisory Council
- Missouri Association of Rehabilitation Facilities
- Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities
- Missouri Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
- Productive Living Board for St. Louis County Citizens with Development Disabilities
- Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
- Missouri Foundation for Health
- Missouri Department of Mental Health