TBIchat.org--A Place to Grow
With the complex and often frustrating constraints that brain injuries place on their victims, it is needless to say that they sometimes need a place where they can get away from it all--a place where they can embrace the love and support of others, feeling secure in knowing that someone else feels just like they do.
This is a mission the website, TBIChat set out to do three years ago. Since then, they have had over one million visitors. These people make up a growing community of survivors, caregivers, and family members of people who have suffered brain injuries. Members of TBIChat get to know each other through a variety of ways.
Many members gather in the TBI Chat Room for support. Members who visit the chat room find that there are many others who have had experiences similar to their own.
"TBICHAT quickly became my online family, people I truly trust and care about," said member, Toby Edmonson. "Having said that, it is important to remember the tremendous amount of work it takes to run TBICHAT and the love and commitment some have given to make this a viable support system for persons with tbi." Edmonson believes that TBI Chat is the only site that offers this kind of support to people with disabilities.
The TBI Chat homepage is put together in an easy to understand format complete with large print for visitors who have difficulty reading small print. Seven different chatrooms are available. Members gather in the TBI Chatroom gather to offer support to one another. Topics of conversation range from recovery, coping, to just chit chat. One member and caregiver says that the support and friendships she has found in the chat room have really helped her.
“It’s been my life saver,” she said. She believes that she has gotten more suggestions from people in the chat room than she has gotten from any doctor.
Brian Lawrance, member and one of the originators of TBIChat, suffered a traumatic brain injury in 1990 as a result of an accident while working in the oilfields of British Columbia, Canada. Trying to unplug a blocked oil line, it collapsed, pulling Lawrance beneath three miles of oil lines, crushing his skull. He is known as “ax” in the TBI Chatroom where he tries to brighten the days of others. He says that he tries to offer advice to people on “how to be strong.”
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