One primary organization, the Brian Injury Association of America, has web resources that include general information on brain injuries, including causes and symptoms as well as national prevalence (BIAA 2010). The Brain Injury association also has state chapters, and the Association of Illinois' website contains some links to services and support groups, but the number listed is surprisingly small (BIAI 2010). Far more abundant in numerous different internet searches, each purposed to be more fine-tuned and selective than the last, websites for attorney's offices specializing in brain injury lawsuits. These websites range from direct and clearly identified business websites to "blogs" that review the medical aspect of brain injuries only in a very general way, and are more explicitly devoted to the urging of legal action being taken in the case of wrongdoing. The Illinois State Board of Education also has a page on its website dedicated to a discussion of special education measures, which includes a brief explanation of brain injuries and how individuals with ongoing problems related to brain injuries are handled in the educational system, but even this discussion is approached more from a legal standpoint rather than a directly practical explanation of support services (ISBE 2010). In short, there are few internet resources -- or indeed direct and explicit resources of any kind -- that deal with the issue of brain injuries in the state of Illinois.

Without a doubt, the most important...

Treatment and support can have an enormous impact on the real, practical impact of a brain injury, and without having resources that are well publicized or even available, this treatment and support is missed by many individuals that could be helped by such programs. The knowledge of how limited brain injury resources can be points to a clearly needed avenue of development in the filed of patient advocacy -- understanding the limitations of the currently available resources does not mean simply guiding patients to the scant programs that are available, but rather calls for fighting for the establishment of more and better support systems.
References

BIAA. (2010). Brain injury association of America. Accessed 18 February 2010. http://www.biausa.org/

BIAI. (2010). Brain injury association of Illinois. Accessed 18 February 2010. http://www.biail.org/

IDHS. (2010). Illinois department of human services. "Illinois warriors assistance program." Accessed 18 February 2010. http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=36085

ISBE. (2010). Illinois state board of education. "Special Education." Accessed 18 February 2010. http://www.isbe.net/spec-ed/

NIH. (2010). National institute of health. "Traumatic brain injury." Accessed 18 February 2010. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tbi/tbi.htm