RULES AND REGULATIONS

THE 2024 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE IN BRAIN INJURY REHABILITATION

The Ontario Brain Injury Association (OBIA) in collaboration with the Personal Injury Alliance (PIA Law) are pleased to present the 2024 Awards of Excellence in Brain Injury Rehabilitation to those who consistently provide exceptional service to the brain injury community.

The five award categories are as follows:

  1. Hospital Social Worker of the Year
  2. Case Manager of the Year
  3. Health Care Provider of the Year
  4. Community Brain Injury Association of the Year
  5. Rehabilitation Company of the Year

Online nominations are open to the public for any of these awards starting on June 3, 2024.

Once the nomination process is complete, online voting for the selected nominees will start on August 6, 2024.

The recipients of the Awards of Excellence will be announced September 18, 2023.

THE AWARDS

1. Hospital Social Worker of the Year – This award will be given to the hospital social worker who has consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty to help brain injury survivors and their families. The recipient will be selected from social workers working at a trauma or rehabilitation hospital since at least June 1, 2023.

2. Case Manager of the Year – This award will be given to a case manager working in private practice who has consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty to help catastrophically impaired brain injury survivors and their families. The recipient will be someone who has worked since at least June 1, 2023 as a private case manager helping catastrophically impaired brain injury survivors.

3. Health Care Provider of the Year – This award will be given to the health practitioner who has consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty to assist the brain injury community. The recipient may be in the public or private sector and can be from any discipline whatsoever (i.e., physician, speech- language pathologist, private social worker, occupational therapist, psychologist, physiotherapist, rehabilitation support worker, personal support worker, etc.). The recipient will be someone who consistently goes the extra mile to assist the brain injury community.

4. Community Brain Injury Association of the Year – This award is meant to recognize the non-profit brain injury association which provides exemplary service to the brain injury community and continues to find innovative means to support brain injury survivors and their families.

5. Rehabilitation Company of the Year – This award is meant to recognize the private rehabilitation company that consistently provides exceptional and dedicated service to brain injury survivors, including through volunteer work by its personnel.

THE NOMINATION PROCESS

Nominations can be submitted online from June 3 to June 28, 2024, by clicking on the following link: Nominations for 2024 Awards of Excellence in Brain Injury Rehabilitation

Please note that award recipients from the previous two years (2022 & 2023) will not be eligible for inclusion this year.

No current OBIA Board Member and/or their employees can accept a nomination for any of these awards.

Nominations are open to the public for consideration, including anonymously, for any of the awards by simply identifying the candidate and providing a means of contacting them and providing a reason for the nomination. You are eligible to nominate in any category as well as nominate more than one person/organization if you wish.

On or about July 2, 2024, the nomination panel will review the submitted nominations and will select up to seven nominees in each category.

Selected nominees will be contacted by the nomination panel on or about July 3, 2024. Nominees will be given an opportunity to accept or decline the nomination.

THE NOMINATION PANEL

The nomination panel is comprised of three members: two from OBIA and one from PIA Law.

It is expected that approximately 4 to 7 select nominees will be chosen for each category by the nomination panel for inclusion in the voting process.

LEARNING ABOUT THE NOMINEES

Selected nominees will be asked to submit their photos and bios to the nomination panel.

Online bios will also be made available to the public on the website for the purpose of online voting.

The online bios will allow members of the public to post Testimonials about nominees (with all testimonials being vetted and approved by a designate of the nomination panel before being posted publicly).

THE VOTING PROCESS

Voting will be done online from August 6 to August 27, 2024 by clicking on the following link: Voting for 2024 Awards of Excellence in Brain Injury Rehabilitation.

Any member of the public is eligible to vote for a chosen nominee. Information about each nominee will be available through their online bios.

Members of the public will be able to post testimonials about any nominee (with all postings being vetted by a designate of the nomination panel before being posted publicly).

A valid email address is needed to vote for each of the chosen nominees, and only one vote will be accepted from each distinct email address, however, we understand that voters could potentially vote more than once using multiple email addresses.

THE DECISION PROCESS

The recipients of the awards will be determined by the following criteria:

  1. Strong advocacy for their clients
  2. Positive outcome for their clients
  3. Years of service
  4. Credentials
  5. Number of public votes
  6. Testimonials

Please note, voting by members of the public will be a key consideration in the decision-making process when selecting the recipients, but not the determining factor. The ultimate decision rests with the nomination panel.

AWARDS PRESENTATION

Select nominees will be notified of the outcome of the voting on or about September 4, 2024 and will be asked to keep the outcome confidential until the public announcement at the Back to School Conference on Wednesday, September 18, 2024.

PRIZES

While not all awards include a prize, the recipient of the Community Brain Injury Association of the Year award will receive $2,000 for the purposes of continuing to provide support to brain injury survivors.