Listen to this post:
A note: Today’s post talks–not in graphic detail–about intimate partner violence (domestic violence) and brain injury. The topic is highly sensitive. Some of the links in this blog post go to other publications that have graphic descriptions of brain injury and violence. Please read or listen with discretion or stop. The video at the bottom of the post is lovely and not graphic. So you can scroll down and check that out.
A while back on this blog, I wrote this post about some common myths around brain injury that includes links to information on intimate partner violence, brain injury in different ethnic and racial communities, among other things that don’t get much media space.
Earlier this summer, I posted a Huffington Post article on Facebook called “The Women Who Face More Traumatic Brain Injury Than NFL Players” and this Australian ABC.net article on how often women end up in the hospital due to family violence. Please stay aware that it’s not only women who have intimate partner violence directed at them, but they make up the largest group of people.
Now I’m really excited to announce that the local Bitch Media has a story about women with head injuries from intimate partner violence in their most recent issue #68, called “Blood & Guts,” which you can read if you subscribe. The article’s called “Who’s Left out of the Picture When We Talk About Traumatic Brain Injury?” by Sarah Kishpaugh. I love that title. In fact, in nearly every community presentation I give, I have slides on this very topic of who does and doesn’t get their story told to the public. And it echoes my earlier post on the topic as well: both in sharing stories that rarely get airtime and questioning why on earth they are not getting the airtime we need. So go you, Bitch Media. And thank you!
I’m also including this darling video Craig Sicilia put together recently. Washington State wants to take funding away from the TBI support groups because they claim the money only goes to buying coffee and donuts. (Hint: that’s not true.) If you defund the support groups, you are taking away a critical piece of access to support, recovery, social connection, and the networking people need to move their lives forward and upward. (Because it’s not like everyone–anyone–has unlimited access to transportation, Vocational Rehabilitation, and counseling. So we gotta get our needs met somewhere.) That’s why we shouldn’t defund the support groups.
What’s neat about the video is their repeated lines “I’m the face of brain injury” and “I’m the face of disability.” It doesn’t fully reflect our true diversity but is way more diverse than a lot of brain injury media we usually get. And this was put together super quick, and only people Craig could reach could participate on extremely short notice. Either way, it’s a great challenge to the stereotypes of who gets brain injuries and what they look and sound like afterward. Go, TBI Survivors Network Development Project!
The video has Open Captions so you can follow along. (Sorry they’re at the bottom over the words. Do not get me started on my captioning software….)
2 responses to “Intimate partner violence and brain injury”
I live this video, but I don’t see any Black or African American people. Do they not participate in the support group. I wish more of us would reach out and support one another.
I don’t work with this support group or know the ethnic and cultural diversity in the active brain injury community where the video was made. In my experience of one local support group where I am, Black and African American members are not actively sought out nor are they regularly treated well (and they’re probably also not sought in the other local groups, but I can’t speak for them). When you look at USA-based brain injury organizations, news pieces, documentaries, blogs, websites, etc., there is nearly no Black, African American, Indigenous, Latino, or Asian representation in the participants and leaders or even in the stock photos of models they choose to post. I am deeply concerned and critical of this. Disparities start with access to adequate medical care and providers who will tell survivors and peers that support groups exist. But disparities are perpetuated by the organizations not seeming to notice or to mind that certain people are missing. I fear there is probably much overt racism but also the unhelpful “colorblindness” in progressive groups. In addition, I think a lot of groups feel that if they make a nice space, anyone who wants it will come to them. This is not true, nor is it fair. There may be some barriers too in terms of how people identify with having a disability, how comfortable it feels to expose their weakenesses and a desire for support, especially knowing that most of the support is going to come from more white people. I scour the search engines regularly for information on this, and when I type in different ethnicities, I only find statistics and journal articles. Most of the people I know are not outwardly racist and saying that Black people should be excluded, but I can see the exclusion in their behaviors and in the convenient excuses they give for those behaviors. These groups seem to do very well around poverty but not race and ethnicity. Thank you, as always, Autisms Love, for your comment. I very much appreciate you raising the question.