Brain injury support sought for veterans
The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony March 2 on a bill that would create the Brain Injury Council and the Veterans Resource Facilitation Fund.
Under LB312, sponsored by Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash, the 15-member council would be housed in the rehabilitation services division of the state Department of Education. The proposed council would advise the director of vocational rehabilitation regarding administration of the Veterans Resource Facilitation Fund, which also would be created by the bill.
Coash said the fund would be used to hire a resource facilitator to help veterans with traumatic brain injuries access services. He explained that the department is able to cover administrative costs for the council with existing federal grant funds but cannot use those funds to provide direct services.
“This is going to become much more important as more and more veterans return home with brain injuries,” Coash said.
Mark Schultz, vocational rehabilitation director for the Department of Education, testified in support of the bill.
The vocational rehabilitation division was designated as the lead agency for a federal traumatic brain injury grant in 2008, he said. Through the grant, the division has developed screening tools to diagnose brain injuries and conducted trainings for health care workers, Schultz said, but cannot provide access to the services veterans need.
Many veterans who suffer from brain injuries need jobs, he said, but they also need access to assistance for housing, transportation and emotional support.
“We’ve got to connect them to services,” Schultz said.
Tiffany Armstrong, chairperson of the Nebraska Traumatic Brain Injury Council, also testified in support of the bill. Veterans often have difficulty navigating the Veterans’ Administration to access services, she said, adding that nearly 800 Nebraska service members have screened positive for brain injury.
“Brain injury has become the signature wound of today’s conflicts,” Armstrong said.
Coash said the bill’s current fiscal note of approximately $83,000 likely would be reduced. The amount reflects the cost of hiring the resource facilitator, he said, but the position initially was misclassified and would be several pay grades lower.
But, he said, even the existing fiscal note should not deter the bill’s progress.
“That’s about $100 per veteran [with a brain injury] that we’d be asking our state to pay,” Coash said. “It doesn’t seem like a whole lot.”
No opposition testimony was given and the committee took no immediate action on the bill.
