BIAAZ executive director speaks to athletic training students
Posted: August 21, 2009
Mattie Cummins, LMSW, Executive Director of BIAAZ
Mattie Cummins, LMSW, executive director of the Brain Injury Association of Arizona (BIAAZ), spoke to A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Health Sciences athletic training students as part of the program’s concussion class Monday, Aug. 17. BIAAZ is a statewide organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people with brain injury and their families. The BIAAZ is interested in making sports-related concussion injuries an additional focus for the Association.
Every 23 seconds, one person in the United States sustains a traumatic brain injury. 1.4 million Americans suffer these injuries each year and an estimated 3.17 million Americans currently live with disabilities resulting from brain injury. More than 50,000 people die every year as a result of traumatic brain injury.
The BIAAZ, a chartered state affiliate of the Brain Injury Association of America, is the only non-profit organization in Arizona that offers people with brain injuries, their families, friends and service providers, resources and services such as peer support groups and counseling, information referral database access, advocacy programs, educational workshops and conferences, and prevention programs.