Resurrecting Lives Foundation

Programs: Community tbi education program: this program provides basic education and awareness training for the communities who interact with and serve veterans with brain injuries. These programs are done locally and, increasingly, on a national level. In 2017, we partnered with "a head for the future" to produce videos with success stories of our veterans with tbi. We also partnered with stihl about a project for home improvement for veterans in several states: ohio, alaska, michigan & california. The organization also provided training sessions for the franklin county (oh) sheriff's department, training officers on the effects of those with tbi, and to the hr departments of aep and cardinal health (part of the awareness/employment joint initiative). Overall, requests for national presentations are increasing, to groups in ohio, washington dc, georgia and california, increasing awareness of tbi/ptsd.

employment initiative: there were three areas of focus in 2017: 1. Worked with bowling green state university - telehealth office - establishing a project to improve employment and educational opportunities for veterans in the area of northwest ohio. ; 2. Engaged in a "remain-at-work" strategy program, in collaboration with the david lynch foundation, to teach transcendental meditation to veterans to improve hypervigilance at work and to improve adjustment to the civilian world; 3. Continued presentations to employers regarding the benefits of employing veterans. Further, the organization continued its relationship with the university of akron telehealth, servicing northeast ohio, and bowling green state university, servicing northwest ohio. These relationships are designed around training hr departments in the importance of employing veterans as a win/win strategy for company success.

veterans legislative reform project: the conflicts in iraq and afghanistan have resulted in a new "signature wound", traumatic brain injury. We are learning, through research we sponsored at albert einstein university in 2012-2013, that our heroes are "out of their brains, not out of their minds" as michael lipton, md/phd revealed in our landmark study using recently developed neuroradiologic techniques to prove the brain injury through ied blast. The co morbidities of tbi include substance abuse, unemployment, homelessness, incarceration, and even suicide. We work with our national legislators to develop systems to accurately track these injuries and make it easier to diagnose and treat tbi in our military population and veterans. Rendering care as soon as possible is key to reduce the sequellae of tbi which reduces the financial burden to the community, and, more importantly, the emotional burden to the family. In 2017, we continued to meet with our employer partners and our legislators, encouraging movement toward legislation that add benefits to the employment of veterans who are not covered under the hire act.