Last night I went as an observer to the TBI Support Group meeting. While I can say with complete certainty that the group was beneficial I was surprised (shocked?) by the most beneficial aspect: patient to patient transference of knowledge. There were people there with head injuries from as early as 1989 that to this day have no concept of what the treatments are AND, even more shocking, the severity of their symptoms. One woman had been blown off by her insurance company and her doctor. For these reasons, amongst a few others, she simply had no concept of what she needed. While she received volumes of extremely helpful information, she nonetheless has been languishing in misery for a decade. Had a support group not been in place I would have to assume her attitude of "being a burden to [my] family" would no doubt end in the suicide that she mentioned. These support groups are also providing hope that while there might not be a complete recovery that it is possible to see improvements. With hope inspired there's really no way of measuring how powerful of an agent it can be.