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Public Policy of the Brain Injury Network
Policy approved by the Board 10-18-08

Identification:

Use People First philosophy. Refer to the survivor as a person first with reference to his or her brain injury condition second. Refer to people with brain injury as person or people with brain injury or survivor or survivors of brain injury. Do not use terms such as brain injured people, brain damaged people, brain injured students, victims of brain injury, etc. Person with brain injury or people with brain injury is the preferred terminology. Do not label survivors as we are brain injured, we are tbi, we are stroke, etc. Do not refer to survivors as victims of brain injury except in special circumstances that relate to additional circumstances. For example, if someone sustained his or her brain injury in a criminal assault, then he or she is, in addition to being a person with a traumatic brain injury from assault, the victim of crime. If the person sustained a brain illness while living in an impoverished, unsanitary, squalid environment then the person is a victim of poverty. If it has been adjudicated that someone sustained a brain injury due to medical malpractice, then the person is someone with a brain injury who is also the victim of medical malpractice. Note that in these contexts, the person is not a victim of brain injury; the person is a victim of crime, poverty, malpractice, etc.