Central and Southern California Webinars

Yesterday, we wrapped up our third webinar for our Traumatic Brain Injury Statewide Webinar Series “Improving Service Coordination for People with a TBI”. On October 21^st the first Central California TBI webinar and yesterday, Monday October 25^th we hosted a webinar for Southern California. In both webinars, Lynda Eaton, a physical Therapist at the Mercy General Hospital continued her presentation about Strategies for Working with the TBI Consumer.

 Presenting for the central California webinars, was Jenny Oshiro from the TBI Site - Janet Pomeroy Center in San Francisco. Jenny provided information on the variety of available resources. She emphasized that they offer direct services for San Francisco County but for the outlying areas they act as a resource to allow others to provide accessible services for people with a TBI.

Also presenting for Central California was Tim McKay, who provided a consumer perspective on living with a TBI. Tim is a consumer of Central Coast Center for Independent Living (CCCIL) and is on the Civilian TBI Advisory Committee for this project. Tim and Jenny talked about the services and barriers that are specific to Central California. Tim emphasized the difficulties with insurance coverage and the missed opportunities from delays in treatment authorization. The first year of treatment post injury is when the most recovery takes place.

In our Southern California Webinar, we were honored to have five Traumatic Brain Injury Service For California (TBISCA) Sites on the call.  In addition to CCCIL and Lynda from Mercy Hospital, also presenting a brief overview of their Southern California region TBISCA sites were Robert Almaraz from the Betty Clooney Foundation and Christina Hutchison from Options Family of Services.  

The fifth site present and the main presenter was Claudia Ellano providing an overview of services available through St. Jude Medical Center. She discussed some of the difficulties more rural areas have with getting services. Presenting a consumer perspective from Southern California, James Marshall talked about the challenges of having changes in service providers within an agency. He emphasized the need for continuity of services because of the energy it takes to get a new case worker up to speed and the complexity of Traumatic Brain Injury.

Overall, we were much honored to have such a great group of presenters leading our first set of state wide trainings as well as the participation of all those who attended. You can access the webinar archive at our main website at catbi.org.   

October 19th Northern California Webinar Summary

Today, on October 19 we had our Northern California webinars, our first of three, Traumatic Brain Injury Statewide Webinar Series titled “Improving Service Coordination for People with a TBI”. 

Lynda Eaton, a physical Therapist at the Mercy General Hospital and Traumatic Brain Injury Site for California presented on Strategies for Working with the TBI Consumer.  Lynda began by defining Traumatic Brain Injury as being caused from external forces and the difference between those and other types of brain injuries.  She detailed the impacts on memory and the physical, sensory, cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes that TBI has on a person.

Strategies she suggested for working with consumer with TBI. One was to have them or assist them with developing a daily routine in order to expend the least amount of mental energy. She suggested that they use a daily planner that realistically estimates task completion times and to spend 5-10 minutes each morning and night going over tasks they need to do for the day. You can also help your consumer by helping them find methods to say focus, rest, and to find their time most brain-intensive work at their most productive time of day.  

Presenting a consumer perspective, Robert Cline provided spoke about life with a TBI discussed his journey to learning how to manage his life. This included assistance that he received through American River College and his struggle to find employment. He now works part time with the help of his parents and stated that finding employment is difficult for people with TBI. Robert and Lynda discussed the services and barriers that are including their some of frustrations with loss of time for early treatment due to government and insurance funding.  They also spoke about how crucial it has been to connect to knowledgeable community partners to assist others with TBI in getting the services they need.

We were enthusiastic about this first webinar and the feedback we received.  We will be doing our next webinars on focusing on the Central Coast for Thursday October 21st,  and our Southern California webinar for Monday October 25^th.

Stay tuned for our upcoming set of webinars. In March we will be hosing the VA Services and Systems for Veterans with TBI. In June we will be hosing the Maximizing Community Resources for People with TBI. We are excited to be bringing these trainings to continue the collaboration, relationship building and know how to be able to provide quality services to not only those with a Traumatic Brain Injury and their families, but also all those with disabilities. I would like to thank our participants from CFILC, Department of Rehabilitation, Centers for Independent Living in the region and the California Health and Human Services for taking part in the webinar.

Register for Statewide Webinar Series on Traumatic Brain Injury: Improving Service Coordination for people with a TBI

Central Coast Center for Independent Living will be hosting a statewide webinar series on Traumatic Brain Injury. Doug Chandler and Crystal Cardenas Loutzenhiser presented information on these webinars at the recent Statewide CFILC Meeting in Garden Grove.

We strongly encourage key community partners to participate. One of our primary goals is to facilitate partnerships with organizations that work with consumers with a TBI to best serve consumers. The webinars will provide training on TBI, present information about the TBI sites in California and provide a consumer perspective on services for people with a TBI.

Webinar Schedule

The first Statewide Webinar Series on Traumatic Brain Injury will be "Improving Service Coordination for people with a TBI". Below is schedule according to region.

Tuesday, October 19^th Northern California 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

§  Lynda Eaton  - Mercy General Hospital  

§  Robert Cline  - California TBI Advisory Board

Thursday, October 21^st Central California 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. (This includes the San Francisco Bay Area)

§  Janet Pomeroy Center

§  Tim McKay - Central Coast TBI Advisory Committee

Monday, October 25^th Southern California 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

§  Claudia Ellano Ota  - St. Jude’s Brain Injury Network

§  James Marshall - California TBI Advisory Board

Who might you invite to participate?

§  Independent Living Centers

§  Department of Rehabilitation

§  Traumatic Brain Injury Service Sites

§  Disabled Student Services at Local Community and Four Year Colleges

§  Speech Pathologists

§  Neurologists and Psychotherapist

§  Occupational Therapist/Physical Therapist

§  Vision and Hearing Resources and Specialists

§  Senior Network

§  Homeless/Housing Services

§  Rape Crisis Centers

§  United Way

§  Veterans Organizations

How to Register?
Please email Crystal Loutzenhiser : Cloutzenhiser@cccil.org or call at 831-757-2968 to RSVP at least one business day prior to the webinar.

Effective Navigation Tips for using the CATBI.org website...

Effective Navigation Tips

We are committed to ensuring that this website is accessible to all users by conforming to existing recommendations and standards. If you encounter a problem accessing this site or if you would like to provide feedback, please contact us. We strive to make our information accessible to all individuals, including individuals who use assistive technology to access this website and individuals who log in from slow connections. This website was designed to accommodate individuals with cognitive, motor, and sensory limitations.

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Here's more useful information to help navigate the CATBI.org website...

Browser Help: Tune-up your Web Browser

Alternative methods to browse the Web

A browser is the software that enables you to see or hear Web pages. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Safari and Opera are popular graphical browsers, and Lynx is a well known text browser. Many individuals who are blind or have impaired vision surf the Web by using screen readers such as Jaws, Window-Eyes, IBM Home Page Reader and Hal, to name a few.

Designed with Usability and Accessibility in Mind

This site has been designed with the intention that all users should be able to read or listen to its content regardless of their Web browsing device. Unfortunately, graphical browsers still do not behave identically.

There is no sure-fire browser guaranteed to render pages as designed without crashing. Selecting the right browser depends primarily on your operating system (Microsoft Windows, Macintosh or Linux).

The list of browsers that follows is intended to serve as a starting point and should not be considered comprehensive. Macintosh users, particularly those using OSX and newer, definitely will want to download a browser other than Microsoft Internet Explorer, as this is not being supported on these operating systems.

Mac Browsers

• Safari
• Opera
• Camino
• Mozilla
• Visit Pure-Mac.com for a list of additional Mac-compatible browsers.

Windows Browsers

• Mozilla Firefox
• Netscape
• Opera
• Internet Explorer

Linux Browsers

• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera
• Netscape

Get More Out of Your Browser

Whatever Web browsing technology you use, it's a good idea to check for updates a couple of times a year. Newer browsers tend to load Web pages more quickly and to provide more features that allow users to customize viewing and printing preferences.

How to Check Your Browser Version

Look at the top of the browser screen. Above the buttons will be a series of menus, and at the far right is one entitled, "Help." Click on that and go to the bottom menu item. Depending on your browser, it will read something like, "About Internet Explorer," "About Communicator," or "About Opera." Click on that item, and the next screen will show you what version you have. Often, if you are using an older version, the screen will include a link to check for updates.

Make Your Browser Work for You

Most all browsers allow you to adjust the settings in your browser to optimize your Web experience. The specifics of each scenario below will vary among browsers, but the principles are common to all.

Text too small and hard to read - or too large and clunky?

Look at the top of the browser screen. The second or third item from the left will be titled View. Click on this and look at the pull-down menu: in Internet Explorer, click on Text Size; in Netscape, click on Text Zoom; in Opera, click on Zoom. Generally, too, the text size you view is also the size that will be printed.

Tired of printing out pages with the right margin chopped off?

Before you print out the page, click on File, then Print Preview. If you can see that you'll lose the right margin, then go back a step and click on File, then Page Layout. Change the page orientation from portrait to landscape, and perhaps even extend the margins a bit. Now print.

Want to save ink and printing time or, conversely, do you want to print out background images and wallpaper?

Then turn on or turn off "Print Background Colors and Images." In Internet Explorer, this is under Tools/Internet Options/Advanced. In Netscape, it's under Print Preview/Page Setup. In Opera, it's under File/Print Options.

Accessibility Help for Navigating the CATBI.org Website

Accessibility Help

Navigation

These strategies will help you navigate through this website.

Website Structure & Organization

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Home Page

The CATBI.org home page contains navigational text links to Level-1 pages in three places:

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At the very top of the page are three links:

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The top navigation provides links that include access to the Home Page, Services, About Us, Contact Us, and Site Map information. Each link may be clicked to take you to where there is information regarding that item.

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Each Level-1 page contains menu-style links along the right of the page, with footer links located at the bottom of the page. All images are accompanied by Alt-attribute descriptions.

At the very top of the page are three links: one to the content of the Level-1 page; one to the Accessibility-Help Page (structural description and access instructions); and one to the footer.

Level-2 Pages

Each Level-2 page includes narrative content and, where possible, a text link back to its primary reference page.

Level-3 Pages

Each Level-3 page provides an external link to content that exists outside of the CATBI.org website. Users should click on the browser's back button to return to the CATBI.org web page. Navigation features within Level-3 web pages may significantly differ from the CATBI.org website.

Navigation

You may navigate throughout this site by mouse or by keystroke. Pressing the "Tab" key will advance you to the next link option, and pressing the "Enter" key will take you to the linked document or site. If you need to go back to the previous link, just press the "Shift" and "Tab" keys.

Need help to tune-up your Web Browser? Visit the Browser-Help page on our website.

Learn effective navigation tips to improve your accessibility.