A.H.E.A.D.: Achieving Healing Through Education, Accountability, and Determination

A psycho-educational curriculum for traumatic brain injury, developed in partnership with MINDSOURCE – Brain Injury Network and Dr. Bradley McMillan PhD from the Denver County Jail, Rachel Tiel, and with support from graduate students at the University of Denver, Tyler Camaione and Moses Gur.

The goal of the TBI Education & Skill-Building group is to provide justice-involved individuals who have screened positive for traumatic brain injury (TBI) with the insight and tools to better cope with and address the symptoms that they deal with, such as short-term memory loss, delayed speed of processing, and difficulty with emotional regulation. This group curriculum was developed based on best practices for group facilitation for individuals with TBI. In addition, the group topic focus areas were selected to address the hallmark symptoms of TBI.

The message for group participants is that just because they have experienced a lifetime history of TBI, they are not a “broken” person. The focus of this group is to help participants understand TBI and build skills for managing their symptoms so that they can be more successful moving forward. Finally, the curriculum was designed in such a way that mental health staff and criminal justice staff, i.e., probation officers, can facilitate the group sessions.