Through the support of Board Voice member organization The Cridge Centre for the Family since 2021, Board Voice has been able to expand its advocacy efforts on the issue of brain injury caused by domestic violence.
Brain injury from intimate partner violence – IPV-BI – is not a new issue by any means. But awareness of just how common brain injuries are for the victims of intimate partner violence is only now coming to public attention as more research comes available.
Because victims of intimate partner violence are overwhelmingly female, the impact of this type of brain injury is borne primarily by women. Undiagnosed, these hidden brain injuries affect every aspect of a woman’s life, from her health to her ability to parent, to maintain paid employment, and to maintain healthy relationships. As well, multiple barriers at every point in the victim’s life and within the system interfere with reporting, assessment and getting necessary services.
Canadian research into IPV-BI is underway at a number of universities and through a network of researchers. Here are highlights from three 2023 and 2024 studies that Board Voice has drawn from in this summary.
A clear theme emerging from the papers is the work needed to understand the immediate and long-term impacts and scope of brain injury caused by intimate partner violence, as well as how brain injuries are impacting survivors of intimate partner violence also living with legacies of trauma, emotional abuse, mental health challenges, disability and repeated assaults over many years – all of which in turn increase their risk of living in poverty.
Board Voice works with a number of allied organizations, researchers and people with lived experience in BC and across Canada, 12 of whom worked with us in preparing a 2022 summary of IPV-BI issues, impacts and research at the request of then-Parliamentary Secretary Grace Lore, whose portfolio included gender equity and the development of a gender-based violence prevention plan for BC. Find this summary here.
While communities in BC and Canada have various types of supports for people who have experienced a brain injury and other supports for people who have experienced intimate partner violence, there is very little recognition or support for services that address needs at the intersection of these two issues.
In January 2020, The Cridge Centre began providing individualized support to women who are survivors of IPV-BI – the first such support in BC. “The effects of trauma coupled with cognitive impairment and physical limitations require a highly individualized support plan that focuses on the specific challenges faced by each woman,” the organization notes on its website.
Acquired brain injury can cause lifelong complications for people across all aspects of their lives. Raising awareness and developing specific community-based services and new approaches in our health care system and community social services are essential.
Professionals ranging from the police officer dealing with a domestic violence call to the community social service worker puzzling over why a client can’t seem to get her life on track need training and awareness on the high incidence of brain injury among people who have been assaulted by their initimate partners.
This article in The Tyee on strangulation as a dangerous factor in intimate partner violence only briefly mentions the high risk of brain injury with that form of assault, but in fact strangulation can cause high-impact brain injury because the entire brain sustains injury from the lack of oxygen.
Medical professionals need to be aware that when a person presents with injuries caused by blows from her intimate partner – and most especially, any history of strangulation – the possibility of a brain injury must be considered. As noted in the article “Understanding Domestic Violence as a Cause of TBI”: Brain Injury Association of America, it’s vital that providers “screen in” rather than “screen out” who may live with abuse or have a history of being abused, given that anyone may have a domestic violence head injury in their past that may or may not correlate with past experience of intimate partner violence.
An estimated 65-90 per cent of women who have experienced intimate partner violence have a brain injury as a result of that violence. Some have multiple brain injuries. For every one NHL hockey player who incurs a brain injury, an estimated 5,500 women incur one at the hands of their intimate partner.
A woman with an undiagnosed brain injury may present with these kinds of issues:
- be easily distracted
- have difficulties learning new things
- have trouble following instructions and remembering appointments or chores
- be tired and irritated easily
- get angry or rage at her children or others
- have difficulties adapting to life in a communal shelter setting
Here are some excellent sites and important reads for getting familiar with this critically important issue:
Learn more at the following links:
The Cridge Centre for the Family – Intimate Partner Violence/Brain Injury information
Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury through Research (SOAR)
Abused and Brain Injured: University of Toronto research and information portal and toolkit (you’ll find specific research projects at this site as well
ABIResearchLab – Identifying traumatic brain injury in survivors
Final report on Deliberative Dialogue Session on Intimate Partner Violence/Brain Injury – February 2020, Nanaimo Brain Injury Society
Shining a Light on Intimate Partner Violence and Brain Injury – University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine