Online Video Repository of Personal Experiences After Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Provides Veterans Shared Experiences and a Pathway for Health Information

Research Objectives: CrashCourse Concussion Story Wall (concussionstorywall.org), a free online repository of interviews from TBI survivors, launched in March 2021 as a collaboration between TeachAids, Brain Injury Association of America, and National Council of Youth Sports. Veterans were recruited from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Palo Alto Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center (PRC) System of Care. To examine the user engagement of Story Wall as a mental health resource and health information tool for veterans.

Design: Observational study, 2021-2023

Setting: Setting: VA TBI Polytrauma Outpatient Rehabilitation. Palo Alto, California.

Participants: Participants: 24 Veterans who were treated for outpatient TBI rehabilitation in a VA setting and/or caregivers

Interventions: Online video repository

Main Outcome Measures: Website user statistics

Results: 23 male veterans and 1 female veteran/caregiver participated; 12 (50.0%) experienced one concussion, two (8.3%) - two concussions, four (16.7%) - three concussions and six (25.0%) -four+ concussions. Injuries occurred through multiple mechanisms related to military service. Leading symptoms: memory problems (16/24) and headaches/migraines (11/24). The Story Wall website monitors user engagement and characteristics. As of February 2023, over 6,248 users have accessed Story Wall. Majority are ages 25-34 (22.8%) and female (58.9%). The veteran stories were accessed by 632 users.

Conclusions: Inclusion of the veteran stories in Story Wall provides a rare military/veteran perspective. Often the veteran stories include unique themes such as deployment-related injuries, re-integration from military service to civilian life, and distinct causes of injury such as improvised explosive devices and rocket propelled grenades. The Story Wall is an easily-accessible online repository of TBI stories essential in that it aids veterans closer to the community they belonged to when injured and when receiving treatment at the VA, and find TBI/concussion education and resources. User engagement metrics inform the accessibility of the Story Wall. Accessing health resources and finding community are challenging for several reasons including under-recognition of symptoms, stigmatization around impairments, social barriers, misattribution of cause, and even structural vision difficulties. Providing diverse learning pathways for veterans is paramount to the mission of the VA.

Author(s) Disclosures: n/a