DVBIC Educational Materials
DVBIC has a number of education products available to providers caring for service members or veterans who have sustained a TBI. Some materials are intended for providers to personally review with patients, while others are appropriate for use in a “waiting room” area and can be collected by patients as needed. We also have awareness campaign/promotional materials to help promote the DVBIC website with the aim of encouraging patients, families, and providers to learn about our resources.
All products are free and can be ordered by using our Contact Us form.
Patient Education Tools for TBI Symptom Management
Concussion/mTBI Information Pamphlets
These pamphlets were developed by subject matter experts from the DoD and the VA, updated in 2010:
The patient education tools for TBI symptom management include five separate one-page handouts covering the following topics:
Unlike many of the other resources available through DVBIC, these sheets are not intended for self-guidance. These five sheets are intended to be given to patients under the guidance of a medical provider (
i.e., the provider should hand out appropriate sheets to patients during an office visit rather than place a pile of brochures in a public patient area). These tools were developed by subject matter experts from the DoD and the VA in May of 2009. The sheets are available without charge to providers caring for service members and veterans and can be obtained by submitting a request using our
Contact Us form.
Quick Series booklet: Recovering from TBI
The Quick Series booklet is a small spiral bound, pocket size, reference. It covers the following topics:
- Facts about TBI
- Understanding brain injury for patients and family members
- Rehabilitation
- VA Polytrauma Centers and War-Related Illness and Injury Study Centers- WRIISC
- Health care professionals and what they do
- Long-term care options
- Caregiver information for family members
- VA programs
- Recovering from TBI
Tip Cards
The tip cards are a series of brochures covering various topics related to TBI. They cover three main content areas: behavior and communication, adjustment for families, and returning to duty/community. Listed below are all of the tip cards available for order through our
Contact Us form.
- Behavior and Communication Issues (red):
- Adults Living with Brain Injury
- Communicating with an Adult: after brain injury
- Myths & Facts about behavior after brain injury
- Sexuality: after a person has a brain injury
- Social Skills: after brain injury
- DVBIC Tip Cards - Adjustment Issues for Families (blue):
- Caregiving after Brain Injury: a survival guide
- Families as Managers of care and services
- Helping Families: when a service member has a brain injury
- Life after Brain Injury: a guide for families
- Life Changes: when a spouse or partner has a brain injury
- DVBIC Tip Cards - Returning to Duty and Community Issues (green):
- Adults with Brain Injury: myths & stereotypes about work and life
- Back to Work: options after a neurological disability
- Going to College or Technical School: after a brain injury
- Thinking about Work: services that can help
- Work: myths and facts about hiring individuals with disabilities
- Coma: when your child is in a coma
Clinician Resources
- Clinician Resources & Tools Binder
- Concussion Management in Deployed Settings Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG)
- CD: Field Management of Combat Related Head Trauma 2006 - co-developed with Brain Trauma Foundation (BTF)
- Pocket Card (4" x 7") - Field Management of Combat-Related Head Trauma 2006 - co-developed with BTF
- Summary (11" x 17" sheet): Guidelines - Field Management of Combat-Related Head Trauma 2006 - co-developed with BTF
- Documentation Sheet for Military Acute Concussion Evaluation (MACE)
- Instruction Folder for Military Acute Concussion Evaluation (MACE)
- Wallet Card (3" x 4" "accordion") for Military Acute Concussion Evaluation (MACE)
Promotional Materials & Prevention/Awareness Campaign Materials
The goal of the Family Caregiver Curriculum is to provide support, guidance, and education on TBI symptoms and their management to caregivers of service members and veterans who sustained a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury.
The guide is organized into four modules and a Caregiver Companion
- Module 1: Introduction to TBI (learning about the brain, acute care issues, complications)
- Module 2: Understanding Effects of TBI and What You Can Do to Help (physical , cognitive, communication, behavioral, emotional)
- Module 3: Becoming a Family Caregiver for a Service Member/Veteran with TBI (starting the journey, caring for SM and yourself, finding meaning in caregiving)
- Module 4: Navigating the system (recovery care, eligibility for compensation and benefits)
The Caregiver Companion includes a glossary of medical and TBI terms, a guide to military ranks, forms to hold contact information for members of the health care team, medication logs, business card and CD holders, etc.
- The TBI Family Caregiver Curriculum (FCC) was approved by the Defense Health Board on November 12, 2009. It was subsequently approved for distribution within the DoD on April 14, 2010.
DVBIC Office of Education
- The DVBIC Office of Education provides a variety of tools and services aimed at improving care for traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients and increasing public awareness of the effects of TBI. The educational efforts are focused on the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of TBI.
- A multisite network of regional educational coordinators (RECs) addresses the unique needs of target populations within their assigned area. The RECs work in collaboration with the DVBIC team at each site to develop educational resources for clinicians, service members, veterans, families and communities.
- To focus on Reserve, Guard, and geographically diverse service members and veterans. DVBIC RECs participate in Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program events nationwide.
- The DVBIC Office of Education headquarters program provides a robust menu of services to address the significant needs for TBI training in military, VA, and civilian settings. Some key DVBIC Office of Education initiatives are:
- Annual Military TBI Training Conference for over 800 health care providers, who are individually selected by their service branch or the DVA to attend this event.
- DVBIC Brainwaves, a quarterly publication that highlights DVBIC programs and activities as well as new developments in the care and treatment of TBI.
- Brainline.org, a multimedia website on preventing, treating and living with TBI, which is funded by DVBIC and produced by WETA-TV-FM. Brainline.org offers hope, resources and real-life strategies for patients, families, health care providers, communities, and anyone interested in TBI.
- Outreach campaign: to focus on brain injury awareness, DVBIC is partnering with the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) in a yearlong prevention campaign.
- TBI Family Caregiver Curriculum, which was congressionally mandated and designated DVBIC as the agency of responsibility by the Defense Health Board. The DVBIC Office of Education managed the process of creating the curriculum, Traumatic Brain Injury: A Guide for Caregivers of Service Members and Veterans.