Help arrives in Danville for those with brain injuries

A new service is available in Danville for people suffering from brain injuries.

MWS Brain Injury Services has been serving the cities of Danville and Martinsville and Pittsylvania, Henry and Patrick counties for the past three years and decided last summer to have a presence in Danville.

“Danville has such a large population of people with brain injuries that we decided to open a Danville office,” Brenda Weaver, case manager, said Thursday. “We are funded by Danville Rehabilitative Services and help anyone with a documented brain injury.”

Weaver said that 2 percent of the population in the city of Danville and Pittsylvania County had “reportable and documented brain injuries,” according to a 2004 study performed by the Department of Rehabilitative Services and the Brain Injury Association of Virginia.

The service defines a brain injury as “any insult or trauma to the brain that is not degenerative or congenital in nature” that may “result in an impairment of cognitive abilities, physical functioning and/or disturbance of behavioral or emotional functioning.”

Brain injuries can be caused by car accidents, falls, assault, brain tumors, Shaken Baby Syndrome, viruses, cerebral vascular accidents, sports injuries, lack of oxygen to the brain, drug and alcohol abuse, heart attacks or strokes.

Weaver knows that people in the Danville area could benefit from their services and wants to find them.

“We are not helping that many so far, and we are trying to get the word out,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how they obtained their brain injury, just that they have it.”

The services are to help both the client suffering from the injury and the family that has been affected.

“We do a lot of giving out information about resources and anything available to better their lives since their injury,” Weaver said.

She said her office can help families navigate the community systems to find needed services, provide assistance in finding pre-vocational and employment help, managing medications, finding a place to live and needed equipment, arranging transportation, paying bills and scheduling neuropsychological evaluations, among many others.

She also is available to educate the public about brain injuries and hopes to have a support group in Danville much like the successful one in Martinsville.

“Our services are free, and lots of times we can help when people are in-between the injury and receiving disability payments,” Weaver said. “We can even pay for rent and medications.”

At the present, Weaver is only helping with about eight families in Danville, but knows there are many more in the area who could use her help.

“Our purpose is to guide the client through the process of case management by determining goals originated by the consumer and family or supports and then to connect the client with the appropriate agency or facility that is best suited for achieving those goals,” she said.