A Secret Epidemic: Traumatic Brain Injury Among Domestic Violence Victims
In recent years, medical science has uncovered the high risk and devastating effects of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, among U.S. combat soldiers and athletes, especially football and hockey players. What if a vastly greater population were also suffering these effects: women and children living with the consequences of domestic violence?
For as long as I can remember, my mother took aspirin every day, complaining of unbearable headaches. Sometimes she locked herself in the bedroom with the lights off, asking me to take my siblings outside because she couldn’t tolerate the noise. As she got older, her naps grew longer and her sensitivity to light and noise intensified. By her 50s, her memory had begun to fail.
On the day she finally asked me to take her away from my father, I found her in a worse state than I had ever seen her. She could barely stand. She was crawling from room to room while my father ignored her.
Her doctors asked the same question again and again: “What type of head trauma has your mother had?” I always answered the same way: “Over 40 years of severe, ongoing trauma.” They focused on treating her physical symptoms. They ignored her history of violent abuse by my father. emphasis added
More: A Secret Epidemic: Traumatic Brain Injury Among Domestic Violence Victims
Also SeeDementia and traumatic brain injury — alz.org -alzheimers association Over the past 30 years, research has linked moderate and severe traumatic brain injury to a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia years after the original head injury.
Also SeeWhat is the Sojourner BRAIN Program? The Sojourner BRAIN Program is a first-of-its-kind effort to lead the domestic violence field in developing a body of knowledge regarding the incidence, presentation, profile and characteristics, short- and long-term effects, and treatment of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in a population largely unrecognized and rarely talked about—women and children impacted by domestic violence.In addition to creating a meaningful database and assessing and treating TBI at Sojourner Center, the Sojourner BRAIN Program will inform and share standards of care, procedures, protocols and clinical practices with other domestic violence and social service providers, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians and other professionals. Clinical internships and residency opportunities will further extend the impact of the collaborative beyond the walls of Sojourner Center.
Another way in which domestic violence affects us all —economically: