Style Weekly
Shortchanging Survivors
While the Commonwealth of Virginia has begun to recognize the growing impact of brain injury on our state over the past decade, funding for the core safety-net, community-based services for brain injury remains woefully disproportionate in comparison to funding for other disability populations in Virginia ("The Invisible," News & Features, July 6). This leads to enormous gaps in our services system such as the neuro-behavioral services gap captured in your article. Because the state hasn't made the necessary investments in proven, cost-effective, community-based services for survivors of brain injury, it often ends up having to spend much more money on expensive institutional settings for treatment, such as nursing homes, hospitals and jails. Articles like this shine a light on a very dark place for many families and survivors, and hopefully provide incentive for legislators to make substantive changes.
Jason Young
Executive Director
Community Futures Foundation
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