“As they say, ‘None of us is as smart as all of us.’ That is good because the problems we face are too complex to be solved by any one person or any one discipline.”
—Warren Bemis

Our hope

Marilyn Colter created the Brain Injury Family Resources (BIFR) web site with her son, Mike, and other family members. Their hope is that it helps families through difficult periods similar to the ones they experienced when Marilyn’s husband suffered a brain injury.

Our mission

Brain Injury Family Resources is dedicated to helping family members of brain injury survivors around the world. Our mission is to provide encouragement, advice, information and resources in a supportive community. We do this by bringing together relatives and experienced professionals who advocate for and empathize with families facing the challenges of brain injury.

Our promise

Please know that you are not alone. Marilyn, Mike and the rest of the Brain Injury Family Resources staff and volunteers are here to help, as are other families in this network who know first-hand what you’re going through. We hope that you find this web site helpful, and in turn will share your own experiences here so that others may benefit from them.

Our suggestion

After a brain injury, much of the attention is focused on the survivor. But you and other family members need lots of support, too. To get the most out of the Brain Injury Family Resources web site, we suggest the following:

• Spend some time reading our Self-Care Tips for Busy Caregivers for easy ideas to help you take care of yourself.
• Bookmark the BIFR Blog or sign up for her RSS feed to find out what’s happening in the world of brain injury as well as when we add new information to the site.
• Send Marilyn your questions on our Ask Marilyn page any time you need advice or support. She’s here to help and she really does care.
• Share your own experiences in our Brain Injury Family Forum where you can learn from others in similar situations and/or offer your own insights to help them.
• Check out our Resource Directory for state brain injury associations, rehab centers, support groups, veterans’ services, and other online resources.
• Sign up for one of Marilyn’s Teleseminars [coming soon] and learn how to make your life easier, healthier and happier—even while caring for your brain-injured family member.
• Tell us your story so we can share your family’s experiences anonymously with others. This is the greatest gift you can give other families—the knowledge that they are not alone, that you are surviving and they will too.
• Read helpful books we’ve reviewed in our BIFR Book Recommendations section.
• Visit the BIFR Store and find useful books, CDs and seminars Marilyn created to help you.
• Look for and share Silver Linings—happy moments—each and every day. They’re there, we promise. And seeing them will shift your perspective on your situation with your brain-injured loved one.