January 10, 2025 • 14 mins
LET'S TALK ABOUT TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY FOR A MINUTE Because I've got Javan Bair from the Marcus Brain Health Institute on today at 2pm. The Marcus Institute for Brain Health (MIBH) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a clinical care and research institute for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health (PH) conditions such as post-traumatic stress (PTS). Our mission is to deliver in-depth, interdisciplinary precision medicine to Active Service Members, Veterans, and First Responders with ongoing symptoms following a mild to moderate TBI. Lots of veterans struggle with the symptoms of long ago TBI and there is help available. Find out more by clicking here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time to check in with Javon Berry.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
He's the Community Outreach specialist for the Marcus Institute for
Brain Health at CU and Shoots Medical Campus. And Javon,
first of all, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Thank you so much for having me. Manby, It's a
pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I want you to just kind of start by talking
about what traumatic brain injury is and how it can
create long term problems for people.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Yeah, so, traumatic brain injury is the In recent years,
the research has changed about it. You know, we used
to think of traumatic brain injury as simply just a
concussion or blunt force trauma to the head. But especially
in the community that we service at the Marcus Institute
for Brain Health, veterans, active duty service members, and first responders,
(00:51):
we found that so many things like blast exposure, exposure
to big guns, cruiser weapons, things like that. Also, those
waves from those kind of weapons are are causing traumatic
brain injuries as well.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
So are those basically so many of the symptoms.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Oh sorry, go ahead, sorry, there are.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Those percussive injuries, like if you're standing next to a
really big gun, even if you have ear protection, that boom,
is that causing.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Like the brain to bounce off the skull. What are
we talking about.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Here, Oh, of course, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
So when you think about the best examples for like
the military per se, like artillery and mortarmen, you know,
when they spend so much time launching those rounds and
that concussive wave that if you've ever felt an explosion,
you know you can feel it going through your internal
organs and the brain is no different.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's also you know, rattling it back and forth in
the skull like that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
What are some of the long term symptoms that you
see people being challenged by.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
So, you know, sleeplessness, depression, there's a link to suicidal ideation.
There's cognitive issues there, speech issues, you know, where the
brain is just not connecting like it used to and
so you might have a thought on the tip of
your tongue, but you just can't find the resources to
get it out.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
So you know, it's.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Obviously the brain controls everything, and when it starts to
sustain these long term injuries, you know, it starts to
slow kind of everything down to balance.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Some of these symptoms sound like classic symptoms of post
traumatic stress. How are those things connected or are we
looking at something as a psychological issue that could actually
be a brain damage in a brain injury issue.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah, so it's interesting you bring that up because the
link between PTSD and TBIs is very close. And what
we found out that at the Marcus Institute is for
a long time TBIs in service members and first responders
were actually misdiagnosed as PTSD because the symptoms are so
(02:58):
so close. But when you're not treating the root cause
of a brain injury, and you're only treating you know,
say the post traumatic stress through through medication or something
like that, you're not actually getting to the to the
root cause. So we try to look at it as
like a ven diagram of PTSD and TBI.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So I've always heard that the brain, you know, once
you kill a brain cell, you don't get a new one.
And we're now learning a lot more about brain plasticity
and the brain's ability to regenerate certain pathways.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
How do you work with.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Someone who has a traumatic brain injury?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
How do you fix that?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Well?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah, and you're right, that whole that whole old idea
of you know, oh, once once the brain cells are gone,
they're gone.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Thankfully, we've discovered that that's not true.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
What we do at the Marcus Institute is we take
a holistic approach to treating the brain.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So when patients come.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
To see us, we use an interdisciplinary modality or team
to address all the different aspects that can be affected.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
So patients will.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Visit with neurologists, neuropsychologist, cognitive therapists, speech language pathology, even like.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Equine therapy and art therapy.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So we try to look at every part of the
brain from your balance to your speech, to your vision,
everything that could be affected and try to figure out,
you know, how we can individualize that treatment to that patient,
because everybody's brain is going to be injured in you know,
a different fashion.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I was talking to a friend of mine who went
through the evaluation with you guys, and he said it
was some of the most intense three days of his life,
that he was exhausted at the end of it. And
it sounds like that process is the process I mean,
meaning do you put people through this kind of grueling
And I don't use the word grueling to mean you're
lifting heavy rocks, which is mentally grueling.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Testing, is that part.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Of the test to see exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Where they are or how they're doing. You know what
I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Are you testing someone's limits by by putting them through
a pretty rigorous intake process.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, so it's not it's not so much of
testing the limits. As you know, we want to make
sure that the person that we're treating is the right
fit for our clinic, and so to make sure that,
you know, it's actually more TBI than PTSD because we
have some.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Other resources for that.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
But but yeah, the you know, that's a common consensus
of our patients when they go through the treatment. It
is incredibly intensive. You know, for spending your day in
a clinic, going from appointment to appointment, you'd be amazed
with how exhausted you are. But the beauty of that
is and I tell you know, we tell this to
all of our patients. The more willing you are to
(05:39):
come into the clinic and be honest with us and
be willing to open up about, you know, all of
the injuries that you've sustained, the traumas that you have sustained.
The more willing you are to be open, the more
that we can pull out of you and.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Help you heal. So that's where that exhaustion comes from.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
You know, you're you will be spending some time, you know,
reopening some wounds and rediscovering some.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Things, but with the idea of moving past all of that.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
We have a question from the text line, and I
think I know the gist of what this person is asking.
It says, can you and your brain be okay for
a long time after some exposure then get symptoms years later?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
One hundred percent? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah, So you know, the when your brain is injured,
it's a lot like injuring any other part of your body,
like an ankle, for example, And if you don't get
that treated right away, you will you know, not only
will the injury get worse, but you're going to start
to develop natural coping mechanisms that might not be the
most beneficial towards me.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
So, yeah, we have we have patients.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
That come to our clinic that have been out of
the military, out of service for you know, twenty thirty years,
and they've gotten to that point where, you know, there's
just they recognize that something is wrong and they need
that help. So we encourage if you do think you
have a brain injury, to please reach out us sooner
rather than later.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
What are some of the common reasons that people give
for coming in What are the catalysts that spur them
into the Marcus Institute for Brain Health.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Well, you know, with us treating exclusively veterans and first responders,
we get we get people that have been treated, usually
by the VA or some kind of similar entity that
they've gone to for help with PTSD, help with sleeplessness,
help with cognitive issues, and you know, through the process
(07:35):
of you know, bureaucracies like the VA, they have just
kind of felt untreated, unseen, unheard, and it's those usually
it's a combination of those PTSD like symptoms that have
gone on for so long, untreated or unresolved.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Rather that that's what brings people to our door.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Do people have to go through the VA if they
are a veteran who has tricare or some other form
of insurance? How can they get to you if they're
listening right now and maybe they're not really in any
treatment at all. Do they start somewhere else before they
come to you guys, or can you help them first?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
No?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So that's the beauty of it. We're not connected with
the VA.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
We do have a liaison to help out people in
that respect, but we are we're entirely philanthropic everything we do.
There is no out of pocket costs for veterans, first
responders or active duty Okay, we cover travel, lodging, the
whole nine yards. The website that you have linked for
people to look up. It's as simple as going on
(08:34):
there and beginning your intake form and then one of
our wonderful intake team members will spend some time on
the phone and get to know you, get to know
a little bit of the issues that you're dealing with,
and get you out for an evaluation.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Somebody just asks, can you confirm a TBI while someone
is alive?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I think that they are.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Putting CTE and traumatic brain injury in the same bucket,
but that's not necessarily true.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
How do you know such TBI?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Well, the TBI. Yeah, So to answer their question, yes,
one hundred percent, we can. We can see these when
when you are alive, and the way to diagnose it
without you know, like an MRI scan can But also
sometimes you can't see those injuries. So that's why for us,
it's more of a symptomatic thing. Okay, if you can,
(09:22):
like and it doesn't have to be documented either, if
you come and say, like, hey, you know X number
of years ago, I was in the military, I hit
my head and nothing's been the same.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Sense.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
That's where our team of clinicians and physicians that are
going to look and see like, Okay, are these symptoms
that you're having, are they directly correlated to this head
injury and is it something that we can help you
work past.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Javon Bear is my guest, and the organization that we're
talking to or talking about is the Marcus Institute for
Brain Health. Javon, this is a fascinating conversation. I would
love to come and see what you guys do there,
if that would be possible, I would love it because
I think then in our community, we have so many veterans,
so many first responders, and I think a lot of
them have the tendency to downplay the symptoms that they're
(10:09):
dealing with. Perhaps they don't want to think about whether
or not they have PTS, or or maybe they haven't
considered the fact that this might be a brain injury
instead of just you know, a psychological issue that they
don't want to deal with. I guess that's the best
way to put it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Javon beher. Thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
It's been been a pleasure to be able to talk
about this.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Last question from the text line, do you have to
be a veteran or first responder to get an evaluation
and treatment?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Yes, we do treat exclusively veterans, first responders, and as
of last year, active duty service members as well.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Okay, so you got to be in that category to
make that happen. Javon, great information, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Thank you. You know we forgot.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Joon hang on.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You got to hang on through a break because we've
got to talk about the gayline.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I have a couple more questions.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
We'll be right back with Javon Beher from the Marcus
Institute for Brain Health. After this, we are going to
ask I want to ask before I let you go.
We were talking about diagnosing traumatic brain injury the similar
symptoms to PTS and and aging. I mean really, but
I want to ask about some of the therapies that
you guys use because I've always thought once you have
a brain injury, there's very little chance they're gonna be
(11:18):
able to fix it. But what do you guys do
that that is, you know you've figured out over time helps?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah, so we use several different therapies, you know, throughout
the evaluation period we kind of figure out which therapy, uh,
each patient is.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Going to need.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
But we do neuropsychology, you know obviously to try and
you know, kind of retrain the brain to to get
back to what it was pre injury, you know, with
with a little bit of cognitive help, also cognitive therapy
just to help us you know, connect those thoughts again,
get those get those thoughts out also through speech lane,
(12:00):
which pathology you know, when you have thoughts stuck on
the tip of your tongue, trying to get that out.
Behavioral health is a big one, you know, trying to
get to some of the the root causes of some
the PTS life symptoms. We do physical therapy, which most
of our patients have a pretty pretty good time with,
(12:23):
you know, where we really that's one of the things
where we do test limits a little bit of your
balance and to see how you really are coping with
this brain injury on a physical level. This one is
a little little viewed with some skepticism from our our
military members, but we do art therapy. But by the
end of the treatment, everybody's fully involved in that. It's
(12:46):
one of our more popular things we do equine therapy.
We really just try to treat this holistically, you know,
from the from the top down and see what what.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Are your root causes? Where did this brain injury affect
you the most? And how can we help you move on?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
All right?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
You guys have a gala coming up in February. Tell
me about that and how people can get involved there.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yes, so this is our inaugural Hope for Heroes Gala.
It's February eighth at six thirty pm. We're gonna do
this at the Wings over the Rockies Air and Space
Museum over there in the Lowry area. We sorry through
our website there is a link to the gala and
(13:32):
tickets for attendance are one hundred dollars. Beyond that, if
you are wanting to sponsor the event, help out in
any kind of way, we have a sponsorship deck that
runs all the way from one thousand to twenty five
thousand dollars. And this type of event is just really
important for us. Marcus Institute is completely philanthropic. That's how
(13:52):
we have maintained to keep this as an out of
pocket or no out of pocket costs for our veterans.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
So if anyone listening wants to come and, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Dress up, have a couple of drinks with some other
veterans and do a silent live box all the fun
Gale events, then please feel free.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I do not see that on the Marcus Institute for
Brain Health website right now.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I don't know if I'm on the right site.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Which which website are you talking about it?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
It should be on our main website. There should be,
And she did also sing your producer some material for that.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Okay, I'll make sure I get that on the blog
today and make sure if people want to buy tickets.
You got a little bit of time, but February we'll
be here before you know it. And what a great
thing to support. Javon Bear with the Marcus Institute for
Brain Health. Thank you so much for your time today, man,
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Hey, I appreciate you having me on here. Thanks to
let me talk about this.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
All right, Thanks Jevon. We'll see you again soon, I'm.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Sure, Yes, please, I'm a clinic sometime.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I will for sure, I'm gonna come by and see
what's going on. Thanks a lot, man,
It's time to check in with Javon Berry.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
He's the Community Outreach specialist for the Marcus Institute for
Brain Health at CU and Shoots Medical Campus. And Javon,
first of all, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Thank you so much for having me. Manby, It's a
pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I want you to just kind of start by talking
about what traumatic brain injury is and how it can
create long term problems for people.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Yeah, so, traumatic brain injury is the In recent years,
the research has changed about it. You know, we used
to think of traumatic brain injury as simply just a
concussion or blunt force trauma to the head. But especially
in the community that we service at the Marcus Institute
for Brain Health, veterans, active duty service members, and first responders,
(00:51):
we found that so many things like blast exposure, exposure
to big guns, cruiser weapons, things like that. Also, those
waves from those kind of weapons are are causing traumatic
brain injuries as well.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
So are those basically so many of the symptoms.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Oh sorry, go ahead, sorry, there are.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Those percussive injuries, like if you're standing next to a
really big gun, even if you have ear protection, that boom,
is that causing.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Like the brain to bounce off the skull. What are
we talking about.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Here, Oh, of course, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
So when you think about the best examples for like
the military per se, like artillery and mortarmen, you know,
when they spend so much time launching those rounds and
that concussive wave that if you've ever felt an explosion,
you know you can feel it going through your internal
organs and the brain is no different.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's also you know, rattling it back and forth in
the skull like that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
What are some of the long term symptoms that you
see people being challenged by.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
So, you know, sleeplessness, depression, there's a link to suicidal ideation.
There's cognitive issues there, speech issues, you know, where the
brain is just not connecting like it used to and
so you might have a thought on the tip of
your tongue, but you just can't find the resources to
get it out.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
So you know, it's.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Obviously the brain controls everything, and when it starts to
sustain these long term injuries, you know, it starts to
slow kind of everything down to balance.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Some of these symptoms sound like classic symptoms of post
traumatic stress. How are those things connected or are we
looking at something as a psychological issue that could actually
be a brain damage in a brain injury issue.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah, so it's interesting you bring that up because the
link between PTSD and TBIs is very close. And what
we found out that at the Marcus Institute is for
a long time TBIs in service members and first responders
were actually misdiagnosed as PTSD because the symptoms are so
(02:58):
so close. But when you're not treating the root cause
of a brain injury, and you're only treating you know,
say the post traumatic stress through through medication or something
like that, you're not actually getting to the to the
root cause. So we try to look at it as
like a ven diagram of PTSD and TBI.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So I've always heard that the brain, you know, once
you kill a brain cell, you don't get a new one.
And we're now learning a lot more about brain plasticity
and the brain's ability to regenerate certain pathways.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
How do you work with.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Someone who has a traumatic brain injury?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
How do you fix that?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Well?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah, and you're right, that whole that whole old idea
of you know, oh, once once the brain cells are gone,
they're gone.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Thankfully, we've discovered that that's not true.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
What we do at the Marcus Institute is we take
a holistic approach to treating the brain.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So when patients come.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
To see us, we use an interdisciplinary modality or team
to address all the different aspects that can be affected.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
So patients will.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Visit with neurologists, neuropsychologist, cognitive therapists, speech language pathology, even like.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Equine therapy and art therapy.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So we try to look at every part of the
brain from your balance to your speech, to your vision,
everything that could be affected and try to figure out,
you know, how we can individualize that treatment to that patient,
because everybody's brain is going to be injured in you know,
a different fashion.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I was talking to a friend of mine who went
through the evaluation with you guys, and he said it
was some of the most intense three days of his life,
that he was exhausted at the end of it. And
it sounds like that process is the process I mean,
meaning do you put people through this kind of grueling
And I don't use the word grueling to mean you're
lifting heavy rocks, which is mentally grueling.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Testing, is that part.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Of the test to see exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Where they are or how they're doing. You know what
I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Are you testing someone's limits by by putting them through
a pretty rigorous intake process.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, so it's not it's not so much of
testing the limits. As you know, we want to make
sure that the person that we're treating is the right
fit for our clinic, and so to make sure that,
you know, it's actually more TBI than PTSD because we
have some.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Other resources for that.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
But but yeah, the you know, that's a common consensus
of our patients when they go through the treatment. It
is incredibly intensive. You know, for spending your day in
a clinic, going from appointment to appointment, you'd be amazed
with how exhausted you are. But the beauty of that
is and I tell you know, we tell this to
all of our patients. The more willing you are to
(05:39):
come into the clinic and be honest with us and
be willing to open up about, you know, all of
the injuries that you've sustained, the traumas that you have sustained.
The more willing you are to be open, the more
that we can pull out of you and.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Help you heal. So that's where that exhaustion comes from.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
You know, you're you will be spending some time, you know,
reopening some wounds and rediscovering some.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Things, but with the idea of moving past all of that.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
We have a question from the text line, and I
think I know the gist of what this person is asking.
It says, can you and your brain be okay for
a long time after some exposure then get symptoms years later?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
One hundred percent? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah, So you know, the when your brain is injured,
it's a lot like injuring any other part of your body,
like an ankle, for example, And if you don't get
that treated right away, you will you know, not only
will the injury get worse, but you're going to start
to develop natural coping mechanisms that might not be the
most beneficial towards me.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
So, yeah, we have we have patients.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
That come to our clinic that have been out of
the military, out of service for you know, twenty thirty years,
and they've gotten to that point where, you know, there's
just they recognize that something is wrong and they need
that help. So we encourage if you do think you
have a brain injury, to please reach out us sooner
rather than later.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
What are some of the common reasons that people give
for coming in What are the catalysts that spur them
into the Marcus Institute for Brain Health.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Well, you know, with us treating exclusively veterans and first responders,
we get we get people that have been treated, usually
by the VA or some kind of similar entity that
they've gone to for help with PTSD, help with sleeplessness,
help with cognitive issues, and you know, through the process
(07:35):
of you know, bureaucracies like the VA, they have just
kind of felt untreated, unseen, unheard, and it's those usually
it's a combination of those PTSD like symptoms that have
gone on for so long, untreated or unresolved.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Rather that that's what brings people to our door.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Do people have to go through the VA if they
are a veteran who has tricare or some other form
of insurance? How can they get to you if they're
listening right now and maybe they're not really in any
treatment at all. Do they start somewhere else before they
come to you guys, or can you help them first?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
No?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So that's the beauty of it. We're not connected with
the VA.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
We do have a liaison to help out people in
that respect, but we are we're entirely philanthropic everything we do.
There is no out of pocket costs for veterans, first
responders or active duty Okay, we cover travel, lodging, the
whole nine yards. The website that you have linked for
people to look up. It's as simple as going on
(08:34):
there and beginning your intake form and then one of
our wonderful intake team members will spend some time on
the phone and get to know you, get to know
a little bit of the issues that you're dealing with,
and get you out for an evaluation.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Somebody just asks, can you confirm a TBI while someone
is alive?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I think that they are.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Putting CTE and traumatic brain injury in the same bucket,
but that's not necessarily true.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
How do you know such TBI?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Well, the TBI. Yeah, So to answer their question, yes,
one hundred percent, we can. We can see these when
when you are alive, and the way to diagnose it
without you know, like an MRI scan can But also
sometimes you can't see those injuries. So that's why for us,
it's more of a symptomatic thing. Okay, if you can,
(09:22):
like and it doesn't have to be documented either, if
you come and say, like, hey, you know X number
of years ago, I was in the military, I hit
my head and nothing's been the same.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Sense.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
That's where our team of clinicians and physicians that are
going to look and see like, Okay, are these symptoms
that you're having, are they directly correlated to this head
injury and is it something that we can help you
work past.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Javon Bear is my guest, and the organization that we're
talking to or talking about is the Marcus Institute for
Brain Health. Javon, this is a fascinating conversation. I would
love to come and see what you guys do there,
if that would be possible, I would love it because
I think then in our community, we have so many veterans,
so many first responders, and I think a lot of
them have the tendency to downplay the symptoms that they're
(10:09):
dealing with. Perhaps they don't want to think about whether
or not they have PTS, or or maybe they haven't
considered the fact that this might be a brain injury
instead of just you know, a psychological issue that they
don't want to deal with. I guess that's the best
way to put it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Javon beher. Thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
It's been been a pleasure to be able to talk
about this.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Last question from the text line, do you have to
be a veteran or first responder to get an evaluation
and treatment?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Yes, we do treat exclusively veterans, first responders, and as
of last year, active duty service members as well.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Okay, so you got to be in that category to
make that happen. Javon, great information, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Thank you. You know we forgot.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Joon hang on.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You got to hang on through a break because we've
got to talk about the gayline.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I have a couple more questions.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
We'll be right back with Javon Beher from the Marcus
Institute for Brain Health. After this, we are going to
ask I want to ask before I let you go.
We were talking about diagnosing traumatic brain injury the similar
symptoms to PTS and and aging. I mean really, but
I want to ask about some of the therapies that
you guys use because I've always thought once you have
a brain injury, there's very little chance they're gonna be
(11:18):
able to fix it. But what do you guys do
that that is, you know you've figured out over time helps?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah, so we use several different therapies, you know, throughout
the evaluation period we kind of figure out which therapy, uh,
each patient is.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Going to need.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
But we do neuropsychology, you know obviously to try and
you know, kind of retrain the brain to to get
back to what it was pre injury, you know, with
with a little bit of cognitive help, also cognitive therapy
just to help us you know, connect those thoughts again,
get those get those thoughts out also through speech lane,
(12:00):
which pathology you know, when you have thoughts stuck on
the tip of your tongue, trying to get that out.
Behavioral health is a big one, you know, trying to
get to some of the the root causes of some
the PTS life symptoms. We do physical therapy, which most
of our patients have a pretty pretty good time with,
(12:23):
you know, where we really that's one of the things
where we do test limits a little bit of your
balance and to see how you really are coping with
this brain injury on a physical level. This one is
a little little viewed with some skepticism from our our
military members, but we do art therapy. But by the
end of the treatment, everybody's fully involved in that. It's
(12:46):
one of our more popular things we do equine therapy.
We really just try to treat this holistically, you know,
from the from the top down and see what what.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Are your root causes? Where did this brain injury affect
you the most? And how can we help you move on?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
All right?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
You guys have a gala coming up in February. Tell
me about that and how people can get involved there.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yes, so this is our inaugural Hope for Heroes Gala.
It's February eighth at six thirty pm. We're gonna do
this at the Wings over the Rockies Air and Space
Museum over there in the Lowry area. We sorry through
our website there is a link to the gala and
(13:32):
tickets for attendance are one hundred dollars. Beyond that, if
you are wanting to sponsor the event, help out in
any kind of way, we have a sponsorship deck that
runs all the way from one thousand to twenty five
thousand dollars. And this type of event is just really
important for us. Marcus Institute is completely philanthropic. That's how
(13:52):
we have maintained to keep this as an out of
pocket or no out of pocket costs for our veterans.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
So if anyone listening wants to come and, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Dress up, have a couple of drinks with some other
veterans and do a silent live box all the fun
Gale events, then please feel free.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I do not see that on the Marcus Institute for
Brain Health website right now.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I don't know if I'm on the right site.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Which which website are you talking about it?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
It should be on our main website. There should be,
And she did also sing your producer some material for that.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Okay, I'll make sure I get that on the blog
today and make sure if people want to buy tickets.
You got a little bit of time, but February we'll
be here before you know it. And what a great
thing to support. Javon Bear with the Marcus Institute for
Brain Health. Thank you so much for your time today, man,
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Hey, I appreciate you having me on here. Thanks to
let me talk about this.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
All right, Thanks Jevon. We'll see you again soon, I'm.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Sure, Yes, please, I'm a clinic sometime.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I will for sure, I'm gonna come by and see
what's going on. Thanks a lot, man,
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