On an early Thursday morning in April, a group of leaders in the Fox Valley is gathered around a conference table, engaged in discussion. Although they come from different walks of life, they all have a common goal: helping the area's homeless population.
The group is made up of psychologists, therapists, advocates, mental health experts and everything in between. They call themselves BRAIN Fox Valley, standing for Brain Injury, Recognition, Accommodation(s), Intervention(s), Network.
They've been working to identify a connection between head and neck injuries and the Fox Valley's homeless population.
On this morning, the group is discussing their recent research into that connection and the shocking results they found.
From September-December 2016, BRAIN Fox Valley, along with professors and students from UW-Oshkosh, screened 179 homeless people in the Fox Valley to see how many would identify having head or neck injuries.
The screening was done through five different agencies: Homeless Connections, Harbor House, Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services, The Mooring Programs and the Fox Valley Warming Shelter.
Even the committee was surprised with the results.
"I say it's like opening Pandora's box," said Kathy Connolly, co-chair of BRAIN Fox Valley. "As we've begun to look at this issue, it's so broad and it's a huge need within the Fox Valley."
The results showed 87% of those screened identified having a head or neck injury at some point in their life. Even more concerning was that 52% reported injuries with loss of consciousness.
"It was extremely more significant than we had even imagined," Connolly said.
Now that BRAIN Fox Valley has definitively identified the problem, the group is trying to decide the best way to help this population.
"When you put someone with some of those deficits from a brain injury in an apartment, they may not remember to pay the rent, and then they're evicted, and then they're homeless again," said Connolly. "So we're trying to find ways to help people with daily living skills and to be able to maintain a lifestyle."
BRAIN Fox Valley is looking at a variety of possible services to help this population, including peer support and transitional services.
Despite the high percentage, those who collected the data said the screening does have some limitations. They are not diagnosing traumatic brain injuries, nor are they implying that head or neck injuries cause homelessness.
"But what we are finding is in this population, there's a high percentage of people who have had head or neck injuries," said Dr. Susan McFadden, UW-Oshkosh psychology professor who is part of BRAIN Fox Valley, and whose students helped collect the data.
Now, they're using this research to develop and eventually provide services for homeless people who may suffer from head trauma.
"What we're hoping for is to demonstrate to the wider community that this is an issue that we have uncovered that has really been largely unrecognized," said Dr. McFadden.
BRAIN Fox Valley collected more data from January-April of 2017. The group is now seeking a grant to help establish services for the homeless population in the Fox Valley.
