Governor Proclaims Brain Injury Awareness Month

Brain Injury Awareness Month

2025

By The Governor Of The State Of North Carolina

A Proclamation

Whereas, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, with leading causes being slips and falls, motor vehicle accidents, collision with an object, assaults, and contact sports; and in North Carolina and nationwide, it is a public health epidemic often resulting in long-term or permanent disability or death; and

Whereas, TBI is one form of an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), which includes traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries and strokes, brain aneurysms, brain tumors, brain infections, anoxic brain injury, non-fatal overdose and TBI; and

Whereas, an estimated 2.8 million Americans sustain TBI every year, and of them, more than 50,000 die, roughly 282,000 are hospitalized; and approximately 5.3 million Americans live with a TBI-related disability; and

Whereas, in North Carolina, approximately 80,000 people will sustain a TBI this year, and many survivors will be left permanently disabled with impacts to movement, communication, memory, thinking, and processing of emotions; and

Whereas, active duty and reserve military service members are at increased risk for sustaining a TBI compared to their civilian peers due in part to the specific demographics of people serving in the military – in general, young men ages 18 to 24 are at the most significant risk for TBI; and

Whereas, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 35.2 percent of North Carolina women and 30.3 percent of North Carolina men experience intimate partner physical violence, sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes, which tragically creates the potential for TBI; and

Whereas, the North Carolina Brain Injury Advisory Council, the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina, and other stakeholders provide awareness, education, prevention initiatives, training, and services to North Carolinians living with TBI and other ABIs – services that also are offered to their families, health care professionals, and others statewide;

Now, Therefore, I, Josh Stein, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim March 2025, as “Brain Injury Awareness Month” in North Carolina, and commend its observance to all citizens.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this twenty-sixth day of February in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-fifth and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.