Kelowna Women’s Shelter and Brain Trust partnering to raise awareness

You work at an elementary school. You are concerned because the mother of one of your students has stopped showing up for parent teacher meetings and you can’t get a hold of her. Additionally, you’ve noticed the child comes to school without their homework completed and their lunches contain the bare minimum. You might think that this is just a classic example of neglect, but have you ever considered that the mom is the one suffering abuse and is in need?

1 in 3 women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime and, in some cases, up to 80% of those women experience symptoms of traumatic brain injury. There are often no physical signs of brain injury as strangulation is a common cause for those experiencing domestic violence. Likewise, identifying a traumatic brain injury can be difficult as the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive symptoms vary broadly and include feelings of depression, irritability, forgetfulness, lack of motivation, or seeming indifference in everyday tasks.

Despite the prevalence of this issue, both domestic abuse and brain injuries can easily go unnoticed or misdiagnosed and are often inappropriately labeled causing future trauma to some of our most vulnerable people. People who are experiencing a traumatic brain injury are labeled negatively and clients often mention they have been called stupid, lazy, unstable, or crazy, when they are actually living with an invisible injury.

This is exactly why Brain Trust Canada and the Kelowna Women’s Shelter are partnering to raise awareness of these labels. This November, the two organizations will be jointly heading a 4-week social media campaign to shed light on the prevalence of stigma in both traumatic brain injury and domestic abuse.

“We decided that we needed to take a stand.” Says Allison Mclauchlan, Executive Director of the Kelowna Women’s Shelter. “Dispel the myths and bring focus to the realities of what it is like to live with abuse and a traumatic brain injury. Partnerships should offer opportunities to improve our programs with a goal of increasing our capacity to support, and this partnership ticks all the boxes.”

Amanda McFarlane, Senior Manager of Programs for BrainTrust Canada agrees: “Our mission is to identify populations that go unrecognized and unsupported, and women experiencing traumatic brain injury and domestic abuse need our support. We need to shine a light on this issue, and we stand strong with the Kelowna Women’s Shelter to support women in our community.”

But partnerships between service organizations and non-profits is not going to be enough to change the narratives surrounding brain injury in domestic abuse. Women experiencing domestic abuse are often stigmatized and blamed for their circumstances. The response to a person who sustained a brain injury from abuse as opposed to a motor vehicle accident, for example, are very different. “If a brain injury is sustained by an accident or a fall, our society tends not to hold the victim accountable for their injuries or subsequent behavior.” Says Mclauchlan. “This is not the case when it comes to a woman surviving abuse and violence. Instead we often hear ‘Why didn’t she leave?’, ‘She must have done something to provoke it’ and so on. The blame is often put on the woman and not the perpetrator of the abuse, and if we add in a traumatic brain injury that has been untreated and undiagnosed she is subjected to more judgments. All we see is her behaviors and her true story becomes invisible.”

McFarlane agrees adding, “If we don’t start speaking and acting on this now, the impact on future generations will be dire. I’ve worked with women who have been taken to court by their abusers, had the impacts of their brain injury used against them, and lost custody of their children. This is unacceptable. With proper diagnosis of a brain injury, we can offer strategies to women to recover from their injury and reclaim their lives.”

The importance of community awareness and involvement is a key focus and need for both organizations. “We cannot do this work alone,” says Mclauchlan. “In order to fully support women experiencing domestic abuse we need an integrated response and our community is a key part of that.”

The joint advocacy campaign will begin on November 1st to coincide with the start of National Family Violence Prevention Month and will be highlighted on both organizations’ social media accounts. For more information, please follow Brain Trust Canada and the Kelowna Women’s Shelter accounts.

Media Inquiries:

Ester Pike, Development Manager, Kelowna
Women’s Shelter
(778) 478-7774 x.204
ester.pike@kelownawomensshelter.ca

Molly Raposo, Office & Communications
Manager, BrainTrust Canada
(250) 762-3233 x.102
mraposo@braintrustcanada.com

About Kelowna Women’s Shelter: Since 1980, the Kelowna Women’s Shelter has offered safe emergency accommodation and essentials such as food, clothing, and toiletries for women and their children who have experienced domestic violence. Serving women in need from Oyama to Peachland, they provide ongoing individual and group counseling, planning and transportation support, advocacy and outreach, and preventive education programs for both women and children, all at no cost. All Kelowna Women’s Shelter services, programs, and supports are free, confidential, and available 24/7.

About BrainTrust Canada: BrainTrust Canada is a non-profit dedicated to meeting the unique needs of people affected by acquired brain injury by providing evidence-based approaches to rehabilitation and recovery that lead to meaningful outcomes.