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Bruce's StoryBy Bruce RobbHi, I’m Bruce Robb. I was born in 1947 and became a survivor of TraumaticBrain injury in 1955. Now everyone knows my age or can figure it out.They can also figure out that I've been a survivor of TBI for most of mylife. I will tell you I was eight when I received my injury; the restyou can figure out on your own.What is TBI? I will try to explain it to you. It is a sudden shock tothe brain which causes it to bounce off the bones of the skull. You canliken it to picking up your computer, throwing it to the floor, pickingit up and expecting it to work properly without being reprogrammed.Unfortunately the brain isn't like your computer; it’s a one-time programwhich cannot be reprogrammed just like it was before the injury. Becauseof this it will have to learn how to compensate or learn how to dothings differently. Having to do things differently may cause employmentproblems because employers may look upon you as someone who bucks thesystem.I overcame all the visible effects of my injury without professionalhelp but was never able to overcome its many residual limitations. In1955 there was no professional help. Some became available in the earlysixties but by that time no one believed that I had sustained TraumaticBrain Injury so I never received any help. This help would most probablyhave enabled me to successfully overcome my injury as well as at least16 residual limitations, which went, undiagnosed for at least 35 years. IfI had received help, I feel confident that I would now be employedinstead of dependent upon Government assistance.In the Fifties there were no classifications for my type ofinjury, therefore it was assumed that survivors had nothing wrong withthem. This attitude changed 25 years after my injury and TBI was finallyrecognized as a true disability. People finally realized that it couldleave its victim with severe to moderate disabilities. Because it wasonly recognized as a disability in the eighties any survivor prior tothat time had to rehabilitate themselves, No professional help was givenor even thought of. This self-rehabilitation may have further disabledus because it may have made us develop inappropriate responses to manysocial issues. As an example I would like to give myself.My injurymade people believe that I was:1. Mentally ill2. Mentally retarded3. Had Cerebral Palsy4. Paralysis5. I was also told that the type of damage as someone who has survived aStroke.6. In 1988 I developed a problem with my back which has affected mymobility. I now have to walk with a cane so now people assume that musthave MS. These were the six visible limitations, which I overcame and donot include the 11 others, which I had to learn to compensate for. In allI had to overcome 17 limitations with no help.Recently I was told that I had developed inappropriate responses to somesocial issues because of no professional help. I wonder if others outthere are still receiving the same type of help that I did? That is nohelp. If they are receiving this type of help then aren't they beingmade doubly disabled because they may be forced to developinappropriate responses to social issues? These responses will not helpthem gain employment if they are able too nor will they help them becomereintegrated back into society.My experience with getting no help has made me into an Advocate for theDisabled or as I prefer to call us Citizens with Special Limitations. Iguess I have been an advocate ever since my accident but prior to theAmerican's With Disabilities Act no one would listen because theythought, or assumed, that I was a belligerent person or that it was justmy injury causing me to act the way I did. This changed with the passageof the American's With Disabilities Act and people began to realize thatI had known what was needed. This is what enabled me to become anadvocate for the disabled.The type of thing I am now advocating for is a change in the status quowhich will allow those disabled whom can work to go back to work withoutartificial barriers being erected. Unfortunately this change will notcome unless we change Title V of The American's With Disabilities Act.It states that we can still be written up as a risk for privateinsurance. How will this help the Disabled obtain employment? One cannotbe considered to be a risk prior to employment and expect to becomeemployed. How will this help us reduce our unemployment rate, which is?now approximately 12 times higher than the National Average. Presentlyit is estimated to be 70%. Isn't this too high or am I just dreaming? Arethere that many people who are so disabled that they can't be trained insome area which will enable them to become productive taxpayers.Changing Insurance Laws may seem trivial, but it shouldn't because if wewere to reduce the unemployment rate of the disabled to somewhere around6% then our nation would receive in excess of THREE HUNDRED BILLION innew tax revenue a year. With this new revenue don't you believe that?Social Security a well as Medicare/Medicaid would become solvent? Alsodo you not believe that this new source of revenue could go a long way?in helping pay off our National Debt?In 1989,before ADA. became law; I was asked to speak before the EEOC inCharlotte,N.C. I spoke on Title V and pointed that this may be thereason why so many of us are now unemployed and on governmentassistance. To my amazement the head attorney agreed with me. He evensaid that the writers had goofed when they inserted insurancelanguage into The American's With Disabilities Act. All this was caughton video tape and has been sent to Washington, however nothing is beingdone to correct this possible major stumbling block to our employment.Since nothing is being done to change Title V,I have tried to get theinsurance laws of my state changed so that they do not discriminateagainst the Disabled. I have also faxed all of my concerns directly tothe President and was asked by a joint Committee within my state to showthe number of disability groups which could be helped if such a newclassification was to be enacted. I feel that such a newclassification should come from the states. not Washington, because thispower is clearly left to the states in the reserve clause to ourConstitution.In my state, I have proposed the creation of an InsuranceClassification which could remove 17 Disability groups from theInsurance Risk Category when it comes to their employment. I call it aMedically Controlled Disorder/ Medically Cured Disease classification.This sameclassification could work in our 49 other states as well as severalterritories. If it were to be passed than we might see theunemployment rate, for the disabled, drops from 70% and approaches that ofthe National Average. This would happen because people in this newclassification would be removed from the risk category when it came totheir employment.Two years ago I became a contribution editor for Suite 101. My page canbe found in the Health section under disabilities/subheading disabilityadvocacy. The theme of my page is that people with disabilities mustbecome their own advocates if they expect changes in the status quo tocome. To go directly to this site click on suite 101 in my favorites.If a reader decides to look at my site in Suite 101, they will find anextensive list of links to a variety of disability sites. I try my bestto keep them all-current.When I started this page I did it to try to get information out topeople on a better way to help the disabled than just to put them ongovernment assistance. Also when I started it all that I was hearing wasresearch and more research. Research is needed however at some point it?must lead to employment. When this happens there will be more researchmoney available than one could imagine.I guess someone liked my writings and my thoughts because someonenominated me for Whose Who and my name will be appearing in theirmillennium addition under non-profit business. This is more than I canfathom because I never expected that any type of recognition would comeof my work on the Internet. I have only just scratched the surface andknow that my work is just now beginning to start.These were diagnosed with the exception of Epilepsy when I was 34 yearspost TBI.(1) controlled Epilepsy:(2) A learning disability;(3) cognitive dysfunction;(4) short term memory loss;(5) bilateral hearing impaired;(6) speech impairment (Aphasia);(7) sight impairment (Strabismus);(8) partial paresis;(9) ataxia;(10) spastic muscle responses;(11) behavior problems and;(12) loss of IQ.Delphi Internet Serviceswww.delphi.comNational Brain Injury Associationwww.biausa.org/TBI Chatwww.tbichat.org/Resource Roomwww.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1997/Massachusetts General Hospital chatroomshttp://neuro-www3.mgh.harvard.edu/interaction$/chat/indexPeople First linkswww.peoplefirst.org.uk/pflinks.htmlSevere Net Discussion Boardhttp://venus.beseen.com/boardroom/n/17307. |
