Washington State passes bill to fund traumatic brain injury victims
The war in Afghanistan and Iraq has brought attention to traumatic brain injuries of more than 100,000 Washington residents suffering the same debilitating symptoms. This year the Washington legislature has approved a set of state funding programs and services for TBI patients. The funding has increased to about 10 times what it usually spends. Before this year the state was known to spend only $200,000 a year on programs and services for TBI survivors. State Rep. Dennis Flannigan, D-Tacoma, said he realized more needed to be done. His legislation, House Bill 2055, imposed a $2 fee on all traffic tickets and estimates the fee to bring in $1.9 million a year for TBI programs and services. The Brain Injury Association of Washington received a boost of public awareness when the experiences of Bob Woodruff, a journalist for ABC News who was critically injured by an improvised bomb and suffered a TBI himself, became public. Woodruff has since written a book and has helped start the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury. Flannigan's bill was introduced two weeks after Woodruff's book came out. Without it, Flannigan said, it was "very doubtful" the bill would have passed. The bill created a 24-member advisory committee to oversee creating a public-awareness campaign, a statewide referral network and facilitation of support groups.
