The Unmasking Brain Injury Road Show is an exhibition of masks painted by people who have either suffered from traumatic brain injury or care for someone who has been injured in this fashion. According to John Bigart, from the Brain Injury Alliance of Montana which is sponsoring the exhibition, the aim of the show is to promote awareness of the prevalence of brain injury and to give survivors a voice and the means to educate others on what it’s like to live with a brain injury.
“Brain injury doesn’t have a face until it happens to you or someone you know,” said Bigart. “Brain injury is like a snowflake,” he adds, “no two are alike. This makes it hard to predict recovery and hard for families to deal with the situation, so we offer guidance to caregivers and family members.”
“One thing we’ve noticed over the years is that many people who have brain injury aren’t able to share with others what they are going through, so about a year ago we decided to do the Unmasking Brain Injury in Montana Road Show – to unmask brain injury to people and to help show others that persons living with a disability due to their brain injury are like anyone else, deserving of dignity, respect, compassion and the opportunity to prove their value as citizens in their respective communities.”
Blank masks are provided to the participants who paint them and provide a sentence or paragraph or two describing their experience with brain injury.
“It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you cry,” said Bigart. “Some of them are positive and encouraging with the struggles that they’ve gone through, whereas others are just really difficult and you can sense that they’ve gone through some difficult times.”
The program started last year with one exhibition that toured the state but it was so popular that there are now three exhibitions on tour. They visit airports, banks, and health care facilities across the state, capitalizing on the public traffic at such places. In this case, they set up their exhibit at the well attended sports physicals at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital.
The Brain Injury Alliance of Montana is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Bigart said that Montanans work hard and play hard and as a result it toggles between second and third in the nation per capita for traumatic brain injury-related deaths.
Andrea Shay, Acting Principal at the Trapper Creek Job Corps, and mother of five, was on hand to add her voice to the awareness-raising campaign. So was her son, Garrett Brown. Shay said if she had one thing to say to parents about traumatic brain injury, it would be, “Don’t throw your kid back in the game too fast. You’ve got to give a little time for recovery. They need a healthy brain so they can play another day.”
Brown, who is a senior in high school and plays football, basketball and track, said that he has played football for seven years without suffering any brain injury and he wants to keep it that way. He said that education and awareness were key to prevention and prevention was the best cure.