Brain Injury Awareness Week 2025
18 – 24 August 2025
Theme: Invisible disabilities deserve visible change
Raising awareness about brain injury’s intersection with domestic violence, justice systems, homelessness and beyond.
An injury to the brain isn’t seen. The scar, bruising, or head wound will heal – but the devastating impacts of a brain injury remain. Invisible symptoms like memory loss, irritability, pain, and impulsiveness start to bleed into everyday life. Leaving the person with a life-long, invisible disability.
As symptoms of a brain injury increase, people can become vulnerable to hardship. They can face discrimination and fall through the cracks, as they struggle to hold a job or find appropriate housing.
Many people might not know their brain is injured. They may be victims of an assault, car accident, domestic and family violence, or their parents may have abused alcohol and drugs during pregnancy. A concussion, blow to the head, or period of unconsciousness is now impacting the way they think, feel, and act.
Misunderstood by those around them, people with a brain injury can find themselves homeless or incarcerated. Where they suffer at the hands of a system that doesn’t screen for or recognise their disability and is ill-equipped to meet their needs. Frustration builds and a lack of rehabilitation sees them reoffend, feeling helpless and rejected by society.
They deserve better. Their invisible disability deserves visible change!
This is the theme of Brain Injury Awareness Week 2025. The week aims to raise awareness of how the ‘invisible disability’ of brain injury intersects with issues of domestic and family violence, justice, homelessness, and beyond. By raising awareness of these issues, we can break down the current barriers in our systems to create meaningful change for those with a brain injury.
This Brain Injury Awareness Week, Synapse is calling for visible change.
#BIAW2025 #InvisibleDisabilitiesDeserveVisibleChange