U. T. Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth Receives
Gift to Fund New ‘Child BrainHope’ Program
Initiative Will Help Thousands of Children with Traumatic Injuries
RICHARDSON, Texas (Feb. 9, 2004) — The University of Texas at Dallas’ (UTD) nationally recognized Center for BrainHealth has received a $200,000 gift from a University Park couple, Patrick “Pat” and Bonnie Shelby, to help children with traumatic brain injuries receive the best possible services each year in school, long after treatment at rehabilitation facilities has ended.
The gift will be used to establish the Bonnie and Patrick Shelby Child BrainHope Program and could directly aid as many as 1,500 children and their families.
The monies will provide funding for intensive, short-term intervention for children with brain injuries and allow staff at the Center for BrainHealth, which is part of UTD’s School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, to train and collaborate with school liaisons to create coordinated treatment plans. Center staffers will attend hospital admission, review and dismissal meetings with parents to help establish goals and objectives for the children and serve as an “interpreter” for parents so they can understand the various terms associated with brain injury. They also will provide referrals for additional school or medical services, as well as options for subsequent testing and treatment for a child’s needs in other areas, such as behavior, learning and socialization.
The Shelbys realized the need for such a program after experiencing firsthand the difficulty her son, Stratton, had returning to school each year after he received a traumatic brain injury when he was hit by a car in 1997 at the age of six. Now 13 and a seventh grader at Highland Park Middle School, Stratton is making progress and his outlook is greatly improved.
“I know from personal experience that parents often have a difficult time communicating with teachers and support staff about their child’s needs, but I believe this new program can help to correct that and provide hope for families throughout North Texas and beyond,” Bonnie Shelby said. “My husband and I share the passion and vision for a world-class facility staffed by world-class doctors that will help countless children and adults who have brain injuries or other diseases that affect the brain, and the Center for BrainHealth is living up to that vision.”
Pat Shelby is chairman of the board of Legacy Bank, which has 11 locations throughout North Texas. The center has been a designated charity of the Legacy Bank Fall Classic Golf Tournament for the past three years.
Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, director of the Center for BrainHealth, said the new program would allow therapists, educators and families to work together to provide an optimal environment for brain-injured children to grow and learn.
“Children with brain injuries can have a wide range of strengths and weaknesses, and this new program will allow therapists and educators to stay in touch in order to follow a child’s progress years after the initial injury and be a safety net, should difficulties or concerns arise later,” Chapman said. “We are truly grateful for the Shelbys’ contribution and, through the generosity of their gift, look forward to helping countless other children have a positive outcome.”
For more information about the Child BrainHope Program, please contact Dr. Shelley Benton at 214-905-3007.
About the Center for BrainHealth
The Center for BrainHealth integrates research, treatment, academic training and community outreach and is one of the few facilities in the United States to provide continued follow-up to enhance and monitor functional recovery in children and adults with brain injury, brain disease and complications of normal aging. Through this innovative approach, the center is discovering commonalities across brain maladies that are yielding similarities in brain repair mechanisms and resulting in new treatments for improving life for patients with brain injuries and diseases. One of the center’s top priorities is achieving healthy mental aging by translating scientific findings into treatment. For more information about the center and its work, please visit www.centerforbrainhealth.org .
About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls about 13,700 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.