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WPAS Updates:
News from the Washington Protection and Advocacy System
Advocacy for People with Traumatic Brain Injuries
Traumatic Brain Injury: New Focus for WPAS
by Gillian Maguire
March 26, 2003
In 2002, the Washington Protection & Advocacy System was awarded a three-year grant to enhance advocacy services to people who have Traumatic Brain Injury.
Since the grant was awarded, Congress made the decision to create a permanent stream of funding to all Protection and Advocacy Systems across the nation to work with people with Traumatic Brain Injuries.
During this first year, we are focusing on building our network of contacts in the TBI community, establishing an Advisory Committee, and providing legal representation in a small number of special education cases.
Ad Hoc Advisory Committee Established
WPAS is recruiting for members of our TBI Ad Hoc Advisory Committee, the first meeting of which will be held in late April.
WPAS is looking for people who have a Traumatic Brain Injury, family members and other community members to inform and guide our advocacy efforts. This Committee will meet twice a year for three years. All expenses associated with participation in the committee will be paid by WPAS.
If you want to advise WPAS what we should do for people with Traumatic Brain Injury, please complete the application form and send it in to WPAS (you must have the Acrobat Reader on your computer to read this form. You can download this software for free at the Adobe site) . If you want to apply to be on the Advisory Committee and have difficulty printing the form off this web site, please call WPAS at 1-800-562-2702 and request an application. Ask to speak to Gillian Maguire or Phil Jordan.
Special Education Case Referrals Sought
Under this grant WPAS will provide legal advocacy services in a small number of special education or Section 504 cases for children who have traumatic brain injuries.
WPAS has distributed flyers and information to many legal aid and parent groups in the hopes of getting referrals of situations where:
- The child has a traumatic brain injury, and
- The child is not receiving adequate education services and/or accommodations.
Anyone with a situation like this is urged to contact WPAS at 1-800-562-2702. It is important to note that not all situations which meet the above criteria will be accepted for legal representation by WPAS. WPAS staff make decisions to open a case for individual advocacy or legal representation on a case-by-case basis. WPAS has trained Resource Advocates who will speak to callers to gather information about what is happening, and if the case cannot be accepted for individual advocacy, they will offer appropriate and timely information and referral services.
Washington Protection & Advocacy System
315 - Fifth Avenue South, Suite 850
Seattle, WA 98104
Toll-free: 1-800-562-2702 (voice), 1-800-905-0209 (TTY)
Local: 206-324-1521 (voice), 206-957-0728 (TTY)
WPAS on the web: www.wpas-rights.org
WPAS via e-mail: wpas@wpas-rights.org
For further information about WPAS activities on behalf of people with Traumatic Brain Injury, contact Gillian Maguire, gillianm@wpas-rights.org, or Phil Jordan, philj@wpas-rights.org, or call us at 1-800-562-2702.
[For the purposes of this grant program TBI (cranio-cerebral head trauma) is an occurrence of injury to the head (arising from blunt or penetrating trauma or from acceleration-deceleration forces) that is associated with any of these symptoms or signs attributed to the injury: decreased level of consciousness, amnesia, or other neurologic or neuropsychologic abnormalities, skull fracture, diagnosed intracranial lesions, or death.]
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