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NDBIN Newsletter – Summer 2026: Growing Through Recovery

Virtual Concussion Symposium: September 18

The North Dakota Brain Injury Network (NDBIN) is excited for the annual Virtual Concussion Symposium, held each year in recognition of World Concussion Day. This free event brings together survivors, caregivers, educators, medical professionals, therapists, and advocates to learn about the latest concussion research, clinical trends, practice strategies, and collaborative models of care.

Each year, the symposium features multidisciplinary presenters from across the country who share practical tools and evidence-based approaches related to concussion and mild traumatic brain injury. Free continuing education credits are available for a variety of disciplines, including nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychology, social work, speech-language pathology, education, and more. Are you interested in presenting? Call for Presentations submissions are due July 13.

One of the goals of the symposium is to bridge the gap between research and real-world application. Sessions are designed to support both professionals and individuals personally impacted by concussion, emphasizing that recovery often requires a team-based and individualized approach. Previous attendees have highlighted the value of hearing from multiple disciplines and lived experiences throughout the event.

Planning for the 2026 symposium is underway, and additional details will be announced in the coming months. To stay informed about registration, speaker announcements, and agenda updates, visit the Virtual Concussion Symposium page.

Routine Disruption and Brain Injury Strategies

Summer often brings changes in schedules, activities, sleep patterns, and responsibilities. While these seasonal shifts can be exciting, they can also create unexpected challenges for individuals living with brain injury. Many people with brain injury rely heavily on routines to support memory, reduce cognitive overload, manage fatigue, and regulate emotions. Even positive changes – such as vacations, family gatherings, school breaks, or increased social activities – can become mentally exhausting when routines are disrupted.

Common signs that routine disruption may be impacting someone include increased fatigue, irritability, forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating, emotional overwhelm, headaches, or feeling "off" without knowing why.

The good news is that routines do not have to be rigid to be helpful. Small strategies can create a sense of predictability and support during busy summer months.

Helpful Strategies for Summer Routine Changes

  • Keep consistent sleep and wake times when possible.
  • Use calendars, visual schedules, or phone reminders for changes in plans.
  • Build in recovery time after social events or busy days.
  • Maintain a few "anchor routines" each day, such as morning coffee, medications, exercise, or evening wind-down activities.
  • Prepare for transitions ahead of time by reviewing plans and expectations.
  • Give yourself permission to say no or leave early when overstimulated.

It is important to remember that struggling with routine disruption is not a sign of laziness or lack of motivation. Brain injury can affect the brain's ability to adapt quickly to change, manage multiple demands, and recover from overstimulation. Creating structure and predictability is often a key part of supporting successful participation in daily life.

This summer, focus less on doing everything perfectly and more on creating routines that help you function, recover, and live life fully.

DOJ Grant Implementation Underway

NDBIN is excited to share that implementation of our Department of Justice (DOJ) grant officially began on May 1 with the launch of brain injury screening within the North Dakota correctional system. This initiative is focused on increasing identification, support, and connection to services for individuals impacted by brain injury within the justice-involved population.

In just the first 11 days of implementation, 28 brain injury screens were completed, with 15 individuals screening positive for a lifetime history of brain injury. These early numbers continue to reinforce what research has consistently shown: brain injury is highly prevalent within correctional settings and often goes unidentified.

This project represents an important step toward improving awareness, accommodations, rehabilitation, and reentry outcomes for individuals living with the effects of brain injury. By identifying brain injury earlier, staff and providers can better understand behaviors, cognitive challenges, emotional regulation difficulties, and support needs that may otherwise be misunderstood.

We are also encouraged by the growing public interest and media recognition surrounding this work. Several news stations have highlighted the initiative, helping bring greater awareness to the connection between brain injury and the criminal justice system. We hope this momentum continues as we work collaboratively with partners across the state to improve outcomes and expand understanding of brain injury in correctional settings.

NDBIN is grateful to all the correctional staff, providers, and community partners helping make this work possible.

Brain Talks

NDBIN has started another Brain Talks meeting in Bismarck, North Dakota. Beth Beckers started to host Mending Minds every Tuesday in Bismarck. Beth is a brain injury survivor, peer support specialist, and a resource facilitator with NDBIN. Mending Minds is now the 4th group NDBIN routinely hosts across the state. Learn more about a Brain Talk near you:

Bismarck – Mending Minds

A statewide location for survivors of brain injury to come together for support, shared wisdom, and encouragement in a safe, caring community.

  • Upcoming Dates
    Every Tuesday from 12:00 – 1:00 pm Central
  • Location
    Bismarck Veterans Memorial Library, Study Room 2
    515 North 5th Street
    Bismarck, North Dakota
    Virtual Option Available – Zoom registration
  • Questions?
    Contact Beth Beckers at beth.beckers@und.edu or (701) 777-4649.

Fargo – Concussion Discussion

  • Upcoming Dates
    Every Wednesday from 12:00 – 1:00 pm Central
  • Location
    Hope & Coffee
    1801 38th Street South (West door of Soul Solutions)
    Fargo, North Dakota
  • Questions?
    Contact Shannan Stanke at shannan.stanke@und.edu or (701) 777-3190.

Fargo – GYST: Get Your Stuff Together Planner Group

  • Upcoming Dates
    Every Thursday from 5:00 – 6:00 pm Central
  • Location
    Hope in Recovery Center at the Lighthouse
    21 9th Street South
    Fargo, North Dakota
  • Questions?
    Contact Shannan Stanke at shannan.stanke@und.edu or (701) 777-3190.

Grand Forks – Brain Talks

  • Upcoming Dates
    June 15 and June 29 from 10:00 – 11:00 am Central
  • Location
    Mountainbrooke Mental Health Recovery Center
    112 North 3rd Street
    Grand Forks, North Dakota
  • Questions?
    Contact Carly Endres at carly.endres@und.edu or (701) 777-4008.

Brain Injury in Intimate Partner Violence/Domestic Violence

When people hear the words "brain injury," they often associate it with playing sports, particularly football. NDBIN is hoping to change that stigma and have people start to also consider survivors of interpersonal/domestic violence (IPV/DV).

IPV frequently causes brain injury. IPV can result in acquired brain injuries either from external forces to the head (for example, hitting the head with a fist or hard object, slamming the head against a hard object, wall or floor), or from hypoxic-ischemia via strangulation. Epidemiological data on the prevalence of IPV-related brain injuries are scant, but a nationally representative study found that approximately 6.2 million women reported a loss of consciousness from the abuse of a partner.

Information like this is why Sarah Ring, a speech-language pathologist with Sanford Health in Fargo, is very involved with brain injury in North Dakota: from teaching Certified Brain Injury Specialist trainings to sitting on NDBIN's advisory council.

Collaborations

Sarah asked why we hadn't done much work with this special population. NDBIN said we'd love to, if we know of a starting point. Sarah was then able to track down Kayla Jones, a project coordinator with the North Dakota Domestic and Sexual Violence Coalition (NDDSVC), which got the ball rolling towards what has become a great partnership between NDBIN and NDDSVC.

NDBIN and NDDSVC, along with several IPV/DV agencies across North Dakota, took part in the National Association of State Head Injury Administrators (NASHIA) Leading Practices Academy (LPA) and learned best practices when someone has brain injury and IPV/DV. That led to the creation of a "good, better, best" model for agencies to consider when implementing brain injury supports. The further you get into the model, the more collaboration that is happening between that DV/IPV agency, which, from NDBIN's perspective, can make the quality of life for that survivor significantly better.

The model asks agencies to consider the best practice of implementing brain injury screening during their intake process, as we know from research on brain injury screening that survivors of brain injury tend to hide in plain sight, especially in high-risk populations such as IPV/DV. It also asks them to consider having a staff member who can become a liaison between their agency and NDBIN. Carly Endres, senior project coordinator with NDBIN, and Kayla recently presented this model at NDBIN's annual Mind Matters conference in Fargo, and then Carly also brought this work to NDDSVC directors' meetings. Several agencies in North Dakota are currently considering and working out the details to start implementing brain injury screening.

Resources

Participation in LPA also resulted in the creation of a document by Lexi Walther, who at the time was an occupational therapy intern at NDBIN. The document, titled: "Safety. Task ability. Resources. Concerns." (STRC) questionnaire is for NDBIN staff to utilize when we get a survivor of both brain injury and IPV/DV to help us determine where to start with that client, since IPV/DV is not an area we have done a significant amount of work with up to this point.

NDBIN has also featured speakers around this topic. Rachel Ramierez, with the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, came to North Dakota last year for the Mind Matters conference and spoke on the impact of brain injury from a traumatic brain injury standpoint, but also from a non-traumatic brain injury when strangulation, or any kind of oxygen deprivation occurs, which can also cause brain injury. Many are alarmed to hear that a frequent form of IPV/DV is for the offender or batterer, as DV/IPV agencies often refer to the perpetrator, to strangle their victim or use a pillow or their body weight to smother them. This can result in significant brain injury. This is an anoxic type of brain injury, and the impact can be significant to those survivors of this abuse.

Aside from Rachel addressing strangulation at Mind Matters, NDDSVC also held a two-day conference in Bismarck with the Strangulation Institute from California, where Carly, along with many other North Dakota advocates, nurses, lawyers, and others, all came together to learn about the horrors of strangulation. This is a profoundly serious red flag in abusive relationships, often leading to death for the victim. Just one statistic of the many given to us by the Strangulation Institute was that odds for homicide increased 750% for victims who have been previously strangled compared to victims who have never been strangled. There are specific medical evaluation steps that should be followed should someone seek out medical care following strangulation.

Anoxic Injuries

From a brain injury perspective, anoxic injuries, such as those that are sustained from strangulation/suffocation, drowning, overdose, or choking, can often be harder to treat than a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Anoxic injuries tend to impact the entire brain because the entire brain needs oxygen continuously, while some TBIs are more localized and "easier" to identify areas of impact. Brain cells die very quickly, within minutes of oxygen deprivation, and with TBI, typically the tissue that is damaged can recover. Sometimes, when oxygen deprivation is to blame, cells can be permanently lost. Often after TBI, some surgeries can be done to improve quality of life. After oxygen deprivation damages brain tissue, there is no surgery that can be done to reverse that, as mentioned in this narrative review.

A helpful analogy is to think of a TBI like damage to a specific room in a house after a storm, whereas with an anoxic brain injury, the entire electrical system is losing power, and damage was sustained throughout the entire building.

Strategies and Screening

Regardless of how an individual sustained their injury, NDBIN has resources to help. Accommodations are small tools we teach survivors of brain injuries to help improve their quality of life. These strategies require patience and repetition to implement and become a habit, but many times we see survivors we work with embrace these accommodations and meet their goals and that really is why we do what we do at NDBIN. Contact us at NDBIN today to learn more about accommodations.

NDBIN plans to continue spreading the word on the importance of screening for brain injury. We also want to build up our sexual assault information on our website. Sexual assault refers to any non-consensual sexual contact or behavior, whereas IPV/DV occurs more within a broader pattern of abuse or control within a romantic or intimate relationship. Quarterly meetings with IPV/DV/SA agencies and NDBIN to discuss additional next steps or specific cases will also be held. Save the date for August 5, when Katelyn and Kayla with NDDSVC will host a Webinar Wednesday on Domestic and Sexual Violence 101.

Upcoming Events

Be sure to check out our upcoming events including training opportunities and webinars!

Have a wonderful and safe summer!