Please be advised this article contains details of family violence. Domestic violence causes disability for women through lasting impacts on their brains. Traumatic brain injury refers to damage to, or alteration of, brain function due to a blow or force to the head.
This leads to bruising, bleeding and tearing of brain tissue. Such injury can have short-term (acute) effects or cumulative effects (over months or years). A 2008 study by researchers in Adelaide found Aboriginal women experience head injury – including traumatic brain injury – due to assault at 69 times the rate of non-Indigenous women.
We spoke to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and communities in regional and remote Australia about their experiences of traumatic brain injuries from violence and their decision-making about health care access. We also spoke to family members about what they observed in other women who were important to them and had experienced traumatic brain injury. Here’s what we found – and how it can inform the development of better health care and support services.
Not feeling like the person I used to be Violence-related traumatic brain injuries are not isolated experiences . The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women we spoke to reported repetitive, violence-related head injuries over prolonged periods. Most women reported dozens of head injuries or had lost count of the number of injuries suffered.
The violence experienced was usually from Indigenous and non-Indi.