PINK Concussions Partner-Inflicted Brain Injury Task Force

Violent hits to the head and the body can cause a brain injury.

Being strangled or choked can result in a brain injury.

There are many terms for violence such as domestic violence, intimate partner violence, family violence, gender-based violence, and violence against women and children.

Yet despite these many terms, this type of violence-inflicted brain injury has rarely been studied in women.

But there is hope.

There is a new international movement where brain injury professionals are joining forces with those working directly with women in crisis. This PINK Concussions task force is just one example of this emerging partnership between brain injury and domestic violence.

In January 2019, PINK Concussions launched the Partner-Inflicted Brain Injury Task Force to bring together brain injury experts with domestic violence/intimate partner violence professionals.

This international task force seeks to improve the lives of those impacted by violence by creating an open space for learning, inspiration, and collaboration among those working in brain injury and gender-based violence.

CLICK TO JOIN THE TASK FORCE*

*This is a task force for clincians, direct service providers and/or researchers only at this time; however, in the future, this task force will add women with lived experience. If you are a woman with experience of DV/IPV, please join us the PINK Concussions Support Group which is a moderated support group for women.

TASK FORCE LEADERSHIP

The group meets on a video conference/call on the last Tuesday of every month.  Calls are recorded and include leadership updates, a guest speaker presentation, mini-presentations, and community sharing. As of June 2020, the task force membership consists of 180 members from across 38 US States as well as 28 International Members across 7 Countries.

CLICK FOR RECORDINGS FOR PAST CALLS

CLICK TO SEE RECENT ARTICLES IN THE PRESS

CLICK TO JOIN THE TASK FORCE*

*This is a task force for clincians, direct service providers and/or researchers only at this time; however, in the future, this task force will add women with lived experience. If you are a woman with experience of DV/IPV, please join us the PINK Concussions Support Group which is a moderated support group for women.

LEADERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

This month’s spotlight is on Dr. Eve Valera. Dr. Eve Valera is using advanced imaging scans like DTI to test for the presence of "abuse-related brain injuries" in women who have been in a physically abusive relationship. 

Using brief neuropsychological tests and diagnostic assessment, she is also examining the relationships between brain injuries and cognitive/psychological functioning in these women. 

This research could have serious implications for legal, social and educational interventions available to women in such physically abusive situations. 

Research from Dr. Valera's lab showed that of a sample of 99 women who experienced IPV:

• 75% sustained at least one TBI caused by violence from a partner

• 50% sustained multiple TBI caused by violence from a partner

Additionally, she found brain injury severity was negatively related to memory, learning and cognitive flexibility.  This work confirmed the critical need for additional research in this area.

In her current work, she is using a range of methodologies including neuroimaging, neuropsychological assessment, and interviews to characterize women's partner-related TBI history and its relationship to neural, cognitive, and psychological functioning. 

An Overlooked Epidemic: Brain Injuries In Women Survivors Of IPV

Intimate-partner violence (IPV) is a critical public health concern, impacting approximately a third of women over the age of 15 worldwide.

And as many as 75 percent of sampled women who have experienced intimate-partner violence have suffered multiple partner-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

This can have serious negative consequences—among them, deficits in memory, learning and cognitive flexibility—that can impair a woman’s daily functioning.

Unfortunately, these TBIs too often go unrecognized by the women themselves and by their caregivers.

Eve Valera, director of the Cerebellar Psychiatric Research Laboratory wants to increase awareness of and knowledge about TBIs related to intimate-partner violence, and thus help provide appropriate care and treatment and ultimately improve outcomes. read more

Helping the Hidden Female Victims of Traumatic Brain Injury

What comes to mind when you think of someone who has suffered a traumatic brain injury TBI?

• An athlete who plays a contact sport such as football or hockey, perhaps?

• Someone who has served in the military?

• The victim of a car accident?

While it’s certainly true that these are likely candidates for TBIs, one Massachusetts General Hospital researcher has identified an often-overlooked segment of the population that frequently suffers repeated TBIs — women who have experienced intimate partner violence IPV (or what used to be called "domestic violence").

Eve Valera, PhD, an investigator at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, along with Aaron Kucyi, PhD, now at Stanford University, recently completed the first study to use neuroimaging to examine the effect of TBIs on the brains of women who have been in abusive relationships. read more

CLICK TO JOIN THE TASK FORCE*

*This is a task force for clincians, direct service providers and/or researchers only at this time; however, in the future, this task force will add women with lived experience. If you are a woman with experience of DV/IPV, please join us the PINK Concussions Support Group which is a moderated support group for women.