Domestic Violence

Increasingly domestic and family violence features heavily in discussions about brain injury both in increasing vulnerability to sustaining a brain injury as well as difficulties in regulation of emotions and impulses following brain injury.

A strong association has been found between brain injury and domestic violence, from the perspective of both perpetrators and victims. Without appropriate support brain injury can predispose some individuals to violence and domestic violence, putting family members at risk.

Both men and women can be victims of domestic violence, but women experience a far higher rate of violence. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that one in six Australian women have experienced physical or sexual violence from a current or former partner from the age of 15 (AIHW, 2018). Domestic violence carries a high risk of brain injury, with forty percent of victims of family violence attending Victorian hospitals in the 10 years between 2006 and 2017 found to have sustained a brain injury (Brain Injury Australia, 2018). A brain injury can have profound implications for the person and their family for the remainder of their lives and can happen relatively quickly.

Research has shown that women who have a brain injury through domestic violence experience significant disadvantage and are a high-risk group for further marginalisation including poor health, homelessness, out of home care, mental health problems and contact with the criminal justice system (Baldry et al., 2013). Depending on the area of the brain that is damaged, people can have debilitating injury that affect many different areas of their lives including long-term and short-term memory loss, the ability to remember and sequence basic tasks, physical mobility and the ability to communicate. Brain injury is often called the invisible disability because there may be no physical signs of injury.

Synapse is partnering with Guthrie House in New South Wales, who run a residential program for women exiting the criminal justice system to identify whether they have a brain injury.

The project aims to improve the service capacity to respond to the unique needs of women with brain injury and ultimately contribute to maximising successful and sustainable transition back to community. This project will be overseen by a collaboration of partners representative of various non-disability systems that impact successful transition outcomes (eg. Family and Community Services, Department of Justice, Department of Housing, Domestic Violence etc).