Domestic violence support workers are calling for greater recognition and help for the hidden number of women suffering from acquired brain injury after being abused.
The number of children in protection in Australia is rising and support groups say that could be a result of an epidemic of undiagnosed acquired brain injury.
They say with better awareness, diagnosis and therapy, women would not have to suffer the loss of their children as a result of domestic violence injuries.
Deborah Byrne from the Brain Injury Association of Tasmania said women who suffered domestic violence were particularly susceptible to brain injury.
“Certainly a blow to the head, or repeated blows which is something you see in a domestic violence situation, that repeated concussion effect can certainly cause brain injury,” she said.
“The concern is that because it’s not always something that may put a woman in hospital, you may find it’s that mild to moderate brain injury that’s going to cause significant problems in a woman’s life.”
Alina Thomas from domestic violence support service Support Help Empowerment (SHE) said head injuries were not always recognised by women who had been abused.
“Women often aren’t aware of the risk of brain injury,” she said.
“Where there has been a really severe physical assault any head injuries might be a secondary, or even tertiary issue, than something like ‘I broke my hand, it inconvenienced me for months’, which may be given more attention than a head injury.”
Tasmanian Greens MP Cassy O’Connor said acquired brain injury was a hidden disability with very real consequences.
“We do know from what little research has been done that around a third of women who are victims of family violence experience head trauma,” she said.
“Many brain injuries are to the frontal lobe and that’s where we do our reasoning, our problem solving, controlling our more basic instincts such as anger.
“So if you’re a woman who’s been bashed by [a] partner acquired a brain injury, and yet you are still parenting, you have this injury that people aren’t seeing.
“And so you have a family that becomes a victims twice over: a woman who’s a victim of violence from her former partner and children who ultimately lose their connection to their mother and their family.”
Women with brain injuries losing their children
Support service providers want women with brain injuries to be able to maintain contact with their children.
Deborah Byrne said women with acquired brain injury can have the appearance of wilfully neglecting their children.
“There are quite high numbers of children who are removed from families because of neglect, but perhaps it’s not neglect resulting from a lack of care on the mum’s part,” she said.
“If you have a mum that has brain injury and they have problems with initiation and motivation, it could be that mum knows what has to happen but because of that loss of motivation she just has trouble carrying out those tasks.
“Or if the mum has problems with her memory, for example.
“It could be that Child Protection or Family Services call mum in, sit down with her, talk about what has to happen and mum knows what needs to happen, but then she gets home and can’t remember what’s been talked about.”
Ms O’Connor said the system had not caught up with the existing problem.
“There are women who have lost their children and children who have lost their mothers as a consequence of the system which hasn’t yet come to grips with acquired brain injury,” she said.
“I think this is a matter of a system that hasn’t fully come to terms with the consequences of family violence and its intersect with acquired brain injury.
“It’s really important that the system keeps children safe, but it’s also really important that we work to keep families together. It is possible.
“If a woman who’s acquired a brain injury through intimate partner violence is having problems raising her children, there are capacities available for cognitive and behavioural support.”
Frontline workers need greater awareness
Ms Thomas said there was very little awareness of acquired brain injury within most frontline service providers.
“I think people who work in front line service delivery are generally quite naive about acquired brain injuries,” she said.
“We’ve had a lot of attention over the last decade about mental health.
“Acquired brain injury still sits to the side and isn’t recognised by people working in the community sector.”
Ms Byrne wants a new role created within government departments delivering frontline services that screens for acquired brain injury.
“A community liaison person that sits within the Child Protection and Families agency… where perhaps a child is being removed because of neglect, they can go in and identify whether the reason for neglect is acquired brain injury.
“If that’s the case we can go about getting help and support for that mum.”
Ms O’Connor has lent her full support to the proposal.
“It’s not a massive resourcing issue,” she said.
“This is actually about having training modules in place to identify women who are victims of family violence who may as a result of their acquired brain injury present some risk to their children.
“If they had support and therapies in place I think it would be possible to have a better outcome than children being taken away from their mother after they’ve already been victims of family violence.”