Michelle McDonald
CEO, Brain Injury Canada
Canada’s fragmented approach to brain injury comes at a significant human and economic cost.
Every day, Canadians sustain brain injuries that change the course of their lives. Brain injury does not discriminate as it affects people of every age, gender, culture, income level, and community. Yet for many, recovery means navigating a fragmented system with unequal access to diagnosis, rehabilitation, community supports, housing, mental health services, and long-term care. While healthcare delivery is a provincial and territorial responsibility, the impacts of brain injury extend well beyond healthcare into employment, housing, justice, education, and social services. These are national challenges that require national leadership.
Brain injury is one of Canada’s most significant and least recognized public health issues. More than 1.5 million Canadians are living with the effects of an acquired brain injury, and every year an estimated 400,000 more experience a concussion, approximately one every 90 seconds (Brain Injury Canada; PHAC, 2024). Yet despite its prevalence and profound social and economic impact, Canada has no coordinated national strategy.
Federal leadership is not about directing healthcare delivery. It is about providing what no single jurisdiction can achieve alone: coordinating surveillance and data, supporting research, fostering collaboration, sharing best practices, and establishing a shared vision for improving outcomes. Canada has successfully taken this approach for dementia, cancer, autism, diabetes, and mental health. Brain injury deserves the same national commitment via a national strategy on brain injury.
The costs of inaction continue to grow.
Brain injury contributes to increased reliance on disability supports, reduced workforce participation, housing instability, homelessness, mental health and addictions services, long-term care, and correctional systems. Much of this burden occurs outside healthcare and is not comprehensively captured through existing national data systems.
Brain injury is one of Canada’s most significant and least recognized public health issues.
“Canada is effectively pushing the problem downstream,” says Michelle McDonald, CEO of Brain Injury Canada. “Rather than investing in prevention, early intervention, rehabilitation, and coordinated community supports, we continue paying for avoidable long-term consequences that are more expensive for governments and more devastating for individuals and families.”
The evidence tells the story. Canadian studies estimate that 53–70% of people experiencing homelessness have sustained a traumatic brain injury (Hwang et al., 2008; Topolovec-Vranic et al., 2012). The Correctional Service of Canada reports that 34% of federally incarcerated men and 23% of women have a history of brain injury (Correctional Service Canada, 2024).
A national strategy starts by bringing the right voices to the table.
Provinces, territories, Indigenous partners, researchers, clinicians, community organizations, and cross-sector leaders all have critical roles to play in shaping a national strategy. Most importantly, people living with brain injury, caregivers, and families must help shape the solutions. Their lived experience is essential to identifying barriers, setting priorities, and designing practical, equitable policies.
Canada already invests in concussion research, injury prevention, surveillance, and brain health. What is missing is coordination. A National Strategy on Brain Injury would align existing investments, strengthen collaboration, reduce duplication, and improve outcomes.
Canada has the expertise, evidence, and committed partners. What is needed now is the federal leadership to bring them together before the human and economic costs grow even higher.
Visit www.braininjurycanada.ca/national-strategy to learn more and show your support.