Colorado's Online Brain Screening helps patients recognize symptoms and get help
About half a million people in Colorado are living with a brain injury and many of them don't know it. The Colorado Department of Human Services has a free, confidential self-assessment tool that will help users determine if they have brain injury symptoms and get them help. It's called the Online Brain Injury Screening and Support System, or OBISSS.
"It really brings awareness and proper diagnosis of why people are experiencing these struggles," said Russha Knauer, Director of MINDSOURCE Brain Injury Network within the Colorado Department of Human Services.
MINDSOURCE is the lead state agency on brain injuries. They apply for grant money, provide a system of care for people living with brain injuries, coordinate the brain injury community and manage the Colorado Brain Injury Trust Fund. MINDSOURCE worked with several partners to develop OBISSS, which starts with a questionnaire about history with head injuries. If the user screen positive, there is a further questionnaire about symptoms, then the system sends come tip sheets with coping strategies and connects them to resources.
"They may be experiencing cognitive symptoms. They might be struggling with brain fog. They might be struggling with short term memory, having a hard time with language expression, light and sound sensitivity, chronic headaches, emotional/behavioral symptoms that come with brain injury," Knauer explained.
The goal is to get anyone who's struggling with brain injury symptoms the help they need to live their best life. Jules Bryant is just such a patient. She's been struggling with a brain injury since 2019 after extensive electroconvulsive therapy.
"My long term memory ... I have about 40-years memory loss," Bryant said. "Things I used to do automatically now are tough."
She can't read, and she finds it difficult to watch television because her short term memory doesn't retain information well.
"I'm not really supposed to cook because I've set my kitchen on fire several times," she explained.
She relies on Alexa for reminders and GPS to get her where she wants to go.
"I've developed a lot of new passions because all my old skills were wiped out, and I had nothing," she said.
She write poetry about her struggles, and takes extraordinary pictures. She's built an entire new community. She volunteers with several different organizations and leads meditation sessions for other brain injury patients.
"I'm much happier now then I was before," Bryant said. "It's like my life before was very shallow. Superficial. You wake up like, 'What's going to make me happy today?' but what i did probably didn't make me happy. Now I have a huge social circle. I'm excited about my volunteer work, I feel like I make a difference in people's lives and that feels good."