Held annually to raise awareness of brain injury and its impact on everyday Australian’s, Brain Injury Awareness Week is a time to reflect on how each of us can support and advocate for people living with a brain injury and continue to grow awareness and understanding. Synapse, Australia’s brain injury organisation, provides information on the causes, treatments, and challenges of living with brain injury. Their current “What’s Your Connection” awareness campaign highlights the widespread impact of brain injury. Visit Brain Injury Awareness Week information page at Synapse to learn more about this initiative.
When we consider that our brains play a pivotal role in controlling everything we do, say and think, it’s unsurprising that a brain injury can have far-reaching consequences. While traumatic brain injuries from accidents such as a vehicle crash, sports, and assaults often grab the headlines, it’s crucial to recognise that illness, and incidents that result in a loss of oxygen to the brain such as stroke and poisoning, can also inflict significant damage to the brain. Harmful poisonous substances that enter the body can disrupt vital functions, including oxygen delivery to the brain which can result in long-term consequences affecting our daily life.
Between 2015 and 2019 in Western Australia there were:
- 11,308 hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning,
- 56.9% of hospitalisations for accidental poisoning were males, and
- people aged 25 – 44 had the highest incidence of accidental poisoning.
You can read more on the impact of poisoning in WA, effective interventions, and discover organisations and programs trying to reduce the risk of poisoning injuries by visiting the Injury Matters
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