Invisible Wounds Foundation

This week, Invisible Wounds Foundation CEO Shannon Finn Connell and DAV (Disabled American Veterans) CEO Barry Jesinoski published a joint op-ed in RealClearDefense with an urgent message for Congress.

Veterans with TBI diagnoses die by su***de at rates nearly double those without a TBI diagnosis. The diagnostic tools to reliably detect these injuries don't yet exist at scale. And critical federal research funding has been cut by 77%.

As Shannon and Barry write: "If we want to seriously reduce su***de, we must first learn to find the brain injuries we're currently missing."

Read the op-ed: https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2026/04/06/congress_must_support_research_on_military_brain_injury_and_veteran_su***de_1174862.html

This month, our Chief Medical Scientist Dr. James P. Kelly is sitting down with DAV to answer your questions about brain injury in the military.

Tune in March 26 at 1PM ET -- and drop your questions in the comments before then.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1263042455925079

Post 3 of our Brain Injury Awareness Month series.

Not every brain injury happens in a single moment.

Many service members experience repeated blast exposure over years of training and deployment. This cumulative exposure (often called "reblast") can affect the brain even when symptoms are not immediately visible.

Despite the scale of the problem, there are still no medically accepted diagnostic tools to detect blast-related brain injury in living patients, and no FDA-approved treatments.

Without the ability to diagnose, we cannot reliably treat. Closing this diagnostic gap is essential to protecting readiness and improving long-term outcomes.

Learn more at invisiblewounds.org/our-work