In an art room, 54-year-old Cara Tudor Price paints a full-face mask to illustrate who she is and continues to become, as an individual living with a brain injury. Cara is a client of Providence Care’s Community Brain Injury Services (CBIS) and has lived with a brain injury for the last 20 years. It’s an injury she says, with the help of Providence Care, is something she lives with but doesn’t define her.  

“Working with CBIS has been a huge psychological support for me,” explains Cara. “The people that support me have been just so easy to talk to and I’ve been able to share my fears which has been really important through this journey. I think that your mental health is pretty vulnerable with a brain injury and what a difference having support has made in my life. Huge, just huge. So, I couldn’t be more grateful.” 

Cara is an outreach client of CBIS and has weekly support visits in her home with Community Rehabilitation Counsellor Britney Thacker. Together, they work on goal setting and every day executive functioning; tasks like problem-solving, prioritizing, organizing, strategizing, and managing time and space. 

“I’m grateful for the support because I’m not very good at prioritizing tasks. I could have a list of things to do and one of them could be to put out a fire and the other could be to feed the cat and I’ll decide to feed the cat first,” jokes Cara. 

Providence Care’s CBIS program assists individuals with moderate to severe brain injury across the southeast region with offices in Belleville, Brockville and Kingston. CBIS Program Manager Joni Hartman says the goal of the program is to enable clients to participate in meaningful life roles. 

“The outreach program focuses on cognitive, emotional, behavioural, physical and work readiness rehabilitation. Emphasis is placed on improving levels of independence, improving self-awareness, encouraging social integration and investigating productive activity. Service occurs in the client’s home or in a space in the community, most often once per week.” 

Most recently, Cara has decided to work on getting more social and surrounding herself with the greater CBIS community. The most difficult thing she says is living with an injury invisible to anyone new she meets. 

“I’ve been in denial for a long time, and it’s been easier to isolate myself,” she explains. “I’m very sensitive to the fact that I might forget something important someone tells me or forget what I’m talking about while I’m talking. I’ve only recently started attending these social events that CBIS organizes. Last month for example, I went to a conference and that was my first-time meeting anybody else that had a brain injury. I had never, in 20 years, ever, had a discussion with somebody else who had a brain injury. CBIS has me realizing now it’s okay. This is how my life is now.” 

When Cara was just 33 years old, she fell to the ground from an undiagnosed heart issue fracturing her skull and cheekbone while sustaining a subdural hematoma, a brain hemorrhage that happens when bleeding occurs between the brain and the skull. Cara was living overseas at the time with her young family and went without proper care or support for her heart or her brain injury for a number of years following the incident.  

“I didn’t know where the floor was, or the ceiling, or the walls. I had no spatial awareness. So, I couldn’t navigate, and I couldn’t remember from one minute to another. That was the hardest part, I think for my family, that, and they just couldn’t understand what was happening with me because my kids were so young.” 

Cara returned to Canda in the years following her injury and received rehabilitation at Providence Care. Following that, she had a pacemaker for her heart placed. The most difficult thing she says now that her health is stable, is living with an ongoing, invisible injury that impacts her everyday life. 

“Sometimes I kind of wish I did have a cast on my head.” 

“Clients often identify being listened to, feeling understood and supported as what they value most about our service,” says Joni. “As Cara noted, social isolation can become a challenge after a brain injury, so the opportunity for connectedness with others who have shared experience as well as connecting with the community at large is another important part of what CBIS offers to both clients and families.” 

 In addition to the outreach program that Cara is a client of, CBIS also offers an assisted living program. Assisted living provides ongoing, 24-hour support services for adults who have acquired severe brain injuries and require specialized support to live independently and be an active part of their community.  

Donald Macfarlane known by his nickname Buck, is a client of the assisted living program and paints alongside Cara. He has lived with a brain injury since a motorcycle collision left him fighting for his life at just 16-years-old.  

“I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t talk, I didn’t even know my own name,” he explains. 

Buck’s determination and stubbornness is what he credits for helping him through recovery. His mom started calling him ‘Buck’ at just two years old because of both quality traits.  

“Stubborn little Buck,” he jokes.  

Now 60, Buck has a good handle on his injury and lives independently with the help of CBIS. He is a huge Western movie fan, is full of fun facts from popular culture of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and has one of the biggest DVD collections some of the CBIS staff, like Community Rehabilitation Counsellor Julie Austin has even seen.  

“Our model is participate to learn,” explains Julie.  “So, the idea is our clients, like Buck, create a goal for themselves and decide what role they want to take on to make that goal happen. We assist the client with taking those steps to reach that goal as well as with everyday tasks of living.” 

As both Buck and Cara finish off painting their masks, they officially become two more people to participate in the international activity known as the Unmasking Movement. Through the coordination of the Ontario Brain Injury Association (OBIA), thousands of masks have been created by people in the province living with brain injury since 2018. 

“Every year we encourage all our clients in our program to participate in the mask making as a way to encourage them to share their stories, particularly as part of Brain Injury Awareness Month,” says Joni. “We offer it to all our clients, even those who might have participated in past years, because their stories are continuously evolving.” she adds. 

As Cara finishes off her mask she recalls a full circle moment with CBIS.  

“Years ago, I recognized the then-manager of CBIS but couldn’t remember where I knew him from,” she explains. “Later, I realized he had trained me and signed my certificate to work with people with brain injuries early in my nursing career. It’s incredible to think that where I began my career is where I’d end up as a client.” 

With the support of CBIS and the community they have built, Cara and Buck continue to navigate their journeys with resilience and hope, their masks symbolizing their strength and ongoing transformation. Their stories, like the masks they create, are testaments to their courage and the unwavering support they receive from Providence Care. 

University Hospitals Kingston Foundation is the fundraising arm for Providence Care and raises money for community programs like CBIS who support those living with invisible injuries like Cara and Buck. To learn more about how you can make a positive difference in local health care, visit them online.