TBI Outreach to Veterans and Family Members 2012
Executive summary
For the past two years the Department of Social and Health Services and the Washington State
Department of Veterans Affairs have teamed up to help Veterans with traumatic brain injury
(TBI) and their family members. This effort has mainly consisted of outreach to Veterans within
institutions of higher education and National Guard/Reserve units, and providing training
sessions held at various locations across the state. The 2011-2012 TBI Outreach to Veterans and
Family Members Project resulted in great success and led to 110 Veterans and family members
receiving direct services and connection to much needed resources, 1,500 residents being trained
on the issues surrounding TBI, and 2,700 individuals receiving TBI related materials (such as the
link to the tbiwashington.org website). This report breaks down the individual outcomes and
results, and provides recommendations for continuation of this project.
Outcomes and results
1. Disseminate updated resource manual materials to Vet Corps members

Delivered updated resource manual materials to all 31 Vet Corps members.
2. Provide outreach to 20 new colleges that are not Vet Corps Sites

Total number of new sites: 28

Total number of people trained about TBI at new sites: 473

Total number of people received information about TBI: 502
(Perry Technical Institute, South Puget Sound Community College, UW-Bothell, UW-Seattle,
Skagit Valley College-Mount Vernon, Skagit Valley College-Whidbey Island, Seattle Diver’s
Institute, and Lake Washington Technical College, WSSSC board of Vice-Presidents for
community and technical colleges for Washington (x17), Clover Park Technical CollegePuyallup, Bellingham Technical College, and Walla Walla Community College).
3. Provide outreach and training to 20 community groups

Total number of community groups: 30

Total number of people trained about TBI: 957

Total number of people received information about TBI: 1,200
(Washington state board of RSVP program directors, Seattle VAMC, KUOW radio interview,
Washington State Military Trauma Conference (x2), Port Townsend Veteran support group (x2),
1
TBI Outreach to Veterans and Family Members 2012
Washington State Co-Occurring Disorders Conference, Gig Harbor Race for A Soldier Event,
King County Veterans program administrators, Concrete Veterans Stand-Down, Lake Serene
Elementary, Mount Vernon Veterans Day Event, National Leadership Conference for Veterans
Programs, King County service providers (3), Port Angeles area service providers, El Centro de
la Raza Veterans programs, Weyerhaeuser programs, Tri-Cities service providers, Senator
Murray’s Veteran programs staff, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, King
County Justice Forum, Washington State TBI Conference (x2), Tri-Cities VAMC, and the Walla
Walla Vet Center ).
4. Interview 20 incarcerated and 20 homeless Veterans to screen for TBI

Total number of incarcerated and homeless Veterans interviewed: 46

(See Attachment A for compiled results).
5. Attempt to follow up with 103 clients from 2010-2011 TBI project.

Attempted to follow up with all 103 clients from 2010-2011 project.

Was able to contact 39 previous clients (many clients had outdated contact
information).
6. Provide direct service for 100 clients for 2011-2012 TBI project.

Provided direct service for 110 clients for 2011-2012.

(See Attachment B for anonymous database of client information).
7. Survey 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 clients for needs still unmet

Collected survey results from 47 clients (22% response rate).

(See Attachment C for compiled survey results).
8. Present at the 2012 Washington State TBI conference

Presented two workshops for the Washington State TBI conference.

Presented the 2011-2012 TBI outreach to Veterans and family members project
and a panel discussion featuring Veterans who have survived TBI during their
military service.
9. Refer 10 Veterans to Dr. Elaine Peskind’s study at the Seattle VAMC for TBI
screening
2
TBI Outreach to Veterans and Family Members 2012

Total number of Veterans referred to Dr. Peskind’s study: 41*

(See Attachment B for anonymous client information).
* Follow up was not done to check and see enrollment into study.
10. Report results and recommendations to the TBI commission

Compiled 2011-2012 results and recommendations into report delivered to TBI
commission, DSHS leadership, and WDVA leadership
Recommendations
1. Continue TBI outreach to Veterans and family members project thru June 2013
a. In order to continue outreach efforts to Veterans and the military community it is
recommended that DSHS and the TBI commission maintain the current level of
funding ($100,000) to support an additional year of the project.
b. During the past two years the TBI project coordinator has directly served 213
Veterans and family members, presented at and/or attended 153 events, trained
over 2,700 Washington state residents on issues related to TBI, and delivered TBI
related information to over 5,400 individuals.
c. This project covers an estimated network of 24,000 student Veterans and over
63,000 recently returned Veterans throughout the state of Washington. The TBI
Project Coordinator has established relationships with the institutions and key
points of contacts to access this network.
2. Continue these TBI project focus areas:
a. Provide information, support, and site visits to all 31 current members of Vet
Corps.
b. Support National Guard and Reserve units as requested by the J-9 Camp Murray
Director, Tom Riggs.
c. Follow up with clients at 30, 90, and 180 days after initial contact.
d. Provide training and/or resource information to 20 community groups.
e. Survey past and current clients on needs for Veteran TBI survivor population.
f. Refer Veterans to Dr. Elaine Peskind’s research project at the Seattle VAMC.
3
TBI Outreach to Veterans and Family Members 2012
g. Update resource manual materials to ensure latest information is included.
3. Shift TBI project efforts to include these focus areas:
a. Provide information, support, and site visits to all 19 new members of Vet Corps
(a total of 50 Vet Corps members).
b. Ensure that the Veterans Courts in Seattle and Spokane are included in the 20
community groups that receive training and/or resource information.
c. Follow up with the incarcerated and homeless Veterans that were interviewed
during the 2011-2012 project.
d. Provide overview and training of the TBI self-assessment tool to Vet Corps
members. Ensure that the assessment is at each of the Vet Corps sites and that
data/feedback is collected periodically.
e. Work with brain injury professionals to develop and refine the TBI selfassessment tool, so that it can be adapted into a web-based application (app). This
app could then be located at strategic websites, such as the tbiwashington.org site.
f. Consider adding an additional $30,000 to funding to support the technical
development of the TBI self-assessment app.
4