Shedding light on ‘invisible’ disability

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Shannon Trub needs a scooter to get around, but she is not confined to it. And so, people don’t always realize she has a disability.

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“Some people don’t wear their disability,” the 52-year-old Brockville resident said Wednesday as the Community Brain Injury Services (CBIS) agency held an awareness walk on Blockhouse Island.

Trub suffered a brain injury decades ago as a result of her epilepsy, and now struggles with memory issues.

“I don’t have the physical disabilities that some people have,” said Trub.

While she is able to walk, she cannot do so for long distances.

“But I get by, better that some, and I know that,” she said.

Not all disabilities are immediately apparent, which is one reason June is Brain Injury Awareness Month in Ontario.

The CBIS, which is part of Providence Care in Kingston, resumed its annual walk with some 30 participants on a balmy late Wednesday morning.

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“It’s our first year back since COVID, so we just decided to make it a Brain Injury Awareness Day,” said Laurie Ogilvie, CBIS’s service co-ordinator for Lanark, Leeds and Grenville.

In previous years, the walk was a fundraiser.

The tri-county office of CBIS currently serves 30 to 40 clients, said Ogilvie.

It provides support services, including community rehab, to people with acquired brain injuries. Along with physical trauma to the brain, such injuries are also typically caused by strokes or aneurysms.

“Brain injuries affect people differently,” said Ogilvie, noting some patients have physical disabilities while for others the damage is strictly cognitive.

Awareness events aim to educate people about “the invisible side of the injury,” she added.

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Reflecting this diversity of symptoms, participants did not walk a set course, but were invited to walk their own routes at their own pace, after which the group celebrated with a pizza lunch.

“It is the biggest secret in Brockville,” Carmen Gottfried said of CBIS and what the agency offers.

Gottfried’s son, Ken, 40, suffered a brain injury in an assault in May 2008, an incident that resulted in an 18-month prison sentence for the assailant.

Ken Gottfried is now a client of CBIS, while his father is a member of its caregivers’ group and hopes to raise awareness of the organization’s work.

The local CBIS clients and their families have formed a valuable support group, said Carmen Gottfried.

“They have become such a close-knit, fun-loving group,” he added.

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Ken Gottfried found an excellent job in the cooking class at the Real Canadian Superstore, but unfortunately, it closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and has not resumed, said his father.

Ken Gottfried, who declined to be interviewed Wednesday, continues to struggle with, among other things, paralysis down the left side.

Joni Hartman, CBIS’s program manager for the Southeast region, said the agency serves some 250 people across that wider area. While CBIS works with the resources it has available to serve its clients and provide an outreach service, it could always use more.

Greater resources would allow for such things as supported housing, she noted.

The Brockville CBIS office is located at 23 Abbott Street, and can be reached at 613-342-1613.

Rzajac@postmedia.com

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