Certified Brain Injury Specialists

Michigan leads the nation in Certified Brain Injury Specialists!

The Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists (ACBIS) offers a voluntary national certification program for both entry-level staff and experienced professionals working in brain injury services. ACBIS provides staff and professionals the opportunity to learn important information about brain injury, to demonstrate their learning in a written examination, and to earn a nationally recognized credential.

Certification is based on a comprehensive training manual that covers the following topics:

Incidence and epidemiology of brain injury
Continuum of services
Brain anatomy and brain-behavior relationships
Functional impact of brain injury
Effective treatment approaches
Children and adolescents with brain injury
Health and medical management
Family issues
Legal and ethical issues

Certification is not restricted to any one profession or discipline. Rather, it is intended for anyone who delivers services specific to brain injury.

There have been several important changes to the Certified Brain Injury Program. You will find the Group Applicant Instructions and our Group Applicant Form below. It is very important that you read the Group Applicant Instructions carefully. It has been created with hyperlinks to help you through the process and color-coded to help in following all the requirements. Allow at least ONE MONTH to complete the application process. The Exam is based on the Essential Brain Injury Guide.

For BIAMI Group Applicants, trainings are currently scheduled for

March 21 and August 1 in Howell

April 10 and August 13 in Grand Rapids

CBIS Group Applicant INSTRUCTIONS

BIAMI's CBIS Group Applicant Form

Renew Your Certificate Online

If you are someone with test anxiety, one of our trainers had these suggestions:

Pace yourself. When you start the exam, realize how much time per question you have so you do not spend too much time on any one page and end up needing to rush at the end. That will result in errors that are unnecessary.
Since this will be on the computer, use your hand, or a piece of paper, to cover all the other questions you have not answered yet so that you do not look at them. It is most important to focus your attention on only one question at a time.
TAKE YOUR TIME AND THINK THROUGH EACH QUESTION COMPLETELY.
Do not read more into the question than is on the page.
Be sure to read each question twice before choosing an answer. Read it slowly. Think about what it is asking before you answer it.
Begin by reading only the first question. Do NOT look at the answers provided. Shut your eyes, imagine the answer to yourself. Be sure of it. Then open your eyes and find it on the choice list.
Do that for each question. Do not second guess your intuition.
Do not go back and change answers. Most of the time the first answer that comes to you will be the right one.
If you get to a question and you go through the process above, and you do not see the answer you are thinking is correct, do not panic. You need to reread the question because perhaps you misinterpreted it. If you still do not know the answer, leave the question and go to the next one. DO NOT leave the page, however, because you cannot go back once you sign off of the page.
Again, TAKE YOUR TIME. Breathe. Stop and empty your mind for a minute. Then start again. Tell yourself you know the information, pause and think it through. If you get your mind filled with fear, you will not have room to find the answer.
If you end up not knowing the answer, do your best guess. Then let it go. Just let it go.

The Association is grateful to our core team of volunteer Certified Brain Injury Trainers and their organizations for their commitment to education:

Deborah Adams, LMSW, CBIST
Eisenhower Center
Lynn Brouwers, MA, CRC, CBIST
Rainbow Rehabilitation Centers, Inc
Cindy Barrus, PT, MM, CBIST
Spectrum Health Rehabilitation & Nursing Center - Kalamazoo Ave.
Carol Green, OTR\L, CBIST
F. Lax Construction, Barrier Free Division
Carol Greenburg, MS, LMSW, CBIST
Spectrum Health Neuro Rehabilitation Services - Residential
Michael O'Connor, OTR\L, CBIST
Rehab Without Walls, a Gentiva Company
Martin Waalkes, PhD, CBIST
Hope Network Rehabilitation Services

More and more professional members of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan are undergoing the training. Indeed, one out of five Brain Injury Specialists in the U.S. are members of our Association.

Training Flash Cards

The Brain Injury Association of Michigan is pleased to announce that we have a new resource for you in studying for your CBIS Examination. There are flash cards for each of the 8 chapters of the Essential Brain Injury Guide.

Price: $16.00 per pack
Shipping: $7.00
Contact us to place your order!