Tag Archives: North Carolina

North Carolina’s New Four-Year Brain Injury Plan and Statewide Screening Tool

Diagram of OBISSS online brain injury screening and support system with five steps

North Carolina has launched a new statewide strategy to help residents living with traumatic brain injury. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced its 2026–2029 Traumatic Brain Injury State Action Plan on July 22, 2026; the plan officially took effect July 1. Developed by the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Use Services alongside NC Medicaid, the Division of Public Health, and the Brain Injury Advisory Council, it centers on four priorities: expanding access to services, strengthening provider support, bolstering resources for people with TBI and their caregivers, and equipping communities to prevent injuries.

“Really listening to those most impacted by TBI was essential to developing strategies that will improve their quality of life,” said Kelly Crosbie, assistant secretary for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance use services.

The need is significant. In 2024, roughly 8,260 North Carolinians were hospitalized for TBI, more than 32,000 visited emergency departments, and 2,668 died from TBI-related causes, with falls the leading cause.

One of the plan’s first initiatives, the Online Brain Injury Screening & Support System (OBISSS), goes live August 1. Created by the National Association of State Head Injury Administrators, this free and confidential tool identifies an individual’s exposure to brain injury.

President Jackson’s Badge of Freedom

Portrait of a 19th-century man in black suit holding a sword with U.S. Capitol visible through window

Long before he became the seventh president, 13-year-old Andrew Jackson was a prisoner of war. As America’s last president to have served in the Revolutionary War, he and his brother were captured during the British invasion of the Carolina backcountry in 1781. Jackson was then ordered to clean a British officer’s boots. When he refused, the officer answered with a saber, slashing Jackson’s hand and head.

Revolutionary War soldiers in Carolina backcountry 1781

The wound never fully left him. Reports from his friends later stated that they could lay a finger in the dent it left in his skull. In fact, he wore this scar as a badge of freedom rather than a mark of defeat. Historians have long debated what role that early head trauma may have played in the headaches and volatile temperament that shadowed him for life, though no clinical record can say for certain.

This July 4, The Museum of the Waxhaw, in Waxhaw, NC, steps from young Jackson’s refusal, and the resulting wound, honors this moment in American history with a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

NE Joins States to Promote Veteran Brain Injury Bill – Congress Has Run Out of Excuses

Legislative Resolution 314 on hyperbaric oxygen therapy with Nebraska Capitol building in background

On April 9, 2026, Nebraska’s Legislature passed Legislative Resolution 293 in a 43-0 vote, making it the 14th state – alongside Oklahoma, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Wyoming, Maryland, Virginia, North Dakota, Tennessee and Missouri – to formally urge Congress to expand treatment access for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, one of the most pressing issues facing American veterans.

Introduced by Nebraska State Senator Kathleen Kauth, the resolution, “[urges] the United States Congress to swiftly enact legislation to provide for veterans’ access to treatments for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”

In particular, states’ resolutions seek to encourage Congress to move forward on hyperbaric oxygen therapy. “A 4-week course of HBOT may alleviate depressive symptoms in PTSD patients, an effect associated with increased serum BDNF and β-NGF levels,” according to a 2026 study, available to view on the NLM database. The United States loses more than 17 veterans per day to suicide, with TBI and PTSD among the leading contributing factors.

Now that 14 states are aligned behind this legislation, the pressure on Congress to act is mounting.