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Brain-injury advocates back bill to create permanent advisory board to address service gaps
Summary
The Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts and survivors urged the committee to establish a permanent Acquired Brain Injury Advisory Board to continue recommendations from previous commissions and to oversee service improvements.
Kelly Buttilieri, public affairs manager at the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts, asked the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities to support Senate 134 / House 231, which would create a permanent Acquired Brain Injury Advisory Board. Buttilieri said thousands of Massachusetts residents sustain acquired brain injuries (ABI) annually and that prior commissions identified persistent gaps in service delivery.
"The ABI Commission's first recommendation is that a permanent acquired brain injury advisory board be established to continue the work of the acquired brain injury commission," Buttilieri said, describing how the earlier commission's reports guided bipartisan improvements but also identified continuing unmet needs. She submitted the ABI commission report and a data brief on traumatic brain injury hospitalizations, observation stays and emergency department discharges for Massachusetts residents for fiscal years 2016''18.
Supporters told the committee the proposed board would include representatives from relevant secretariats, legislators, people with ABI and caregivers, clinicians, providers and advocacy groups. They said the board would oversee implementation of prior commission recommendations and provide ongoing legislative guidance; witnesses testified the proposal would incur "no cost" to create and maintain the board.
No committee vote occurred; proponents asked for a favorable report and submitted the commission report and injury data into the record.
