Barrow Brain Injury & Sports Neurology Center

Donate to Concussion and TBI Research and Treatment

Concussions are the most common type of traumatic brain injury (TBI), can cause serious impairments if not treated properly. Studies on professional athletes found even slight blows to the head, when repeated often enough, can result in long-term neurodegenerative disease. But these injuries are not limited to only athletes playing at the top level of their sport.

Recently, there has been increasing concern about the safety of student athletes, many of whom sustain at least one concussion per year and may not know the dangers of letting a head injury go unreported or untreated. Another, often overlooked, population prone to repeated concussions are survivors of domestic violence. Even after leaving their abusers, these individuals often lack access to proper medical care to treat their TBI symptoms.

Providing Hope and Tools for Domestic Violence Survivors to Reclaim Their Lives

The first-of-its-kind Domestic Violence Brain Injury Program, led by Glynnis Zieman, MD, provides compassionate care to survivors of domestic violence with TBI, giving them both the tools and the confidence to reclaim their lives.

The Program focuses on addressing cognitive issues that domestic violence survivors often experience, including headaches, vision changes, memory deficits, and mental health concerns. The Program also offers speech therapy sessions and partners with local shelters to provide Brains Club, a cognitive retraining workshop designed specifically for survivors of domestic violence with TBI. Additionally, it provides in-person training on TBI symptoms to shelter staff and offers a virtual course for primary care providers on how to recognize signs of TBI in patients who have experienced domestic abuse.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the nation saw a sharp rise in the number of cases of domestic abuse, highlighting the critical need for more awareness about this devastating reality. In spring 2022, the New York Times Magazine featured Barrow’s Domestic Violence Brain Injury Program in a story about the hidden epidemic of traumatic brain injuries caused by domestic violence.

The story details the journey of a woman who was repeatedly abused by her partner for over 20 years. When she finally left him to begin a life of her own, she struggled with debilitating symptoms of traumatic brain injury. Then, she found the Domestic Violence Brain Injury Program at Barrow. Here, doctors accurately diagnosed the extent of her brain injuries and provided a range of treatments, including psychotherapy, occupational therapy, and cognitive-speech therapy. Today, this brave woman is taking community college classes and hopes to build a career helping other women who have gone through similar situations as hers.

The team realizes how difficult it is to leave an abusive relationship and begin a new life. They found that, like the woman in the New York Times Magazine story, many survivors of domestic violence suffer from a full spectrum of symptoms related to their brain injury that do much more than just damage their health. These side effects can lead to the loss of a jobs, income, and eventually their home. That is why the Domestic Violence Brain Injury Program focuses on treatments and strategies that address cognitive issues survivors of domestic violence may be experiencing, including headaches, dizziness, vision changes, memory deficits, and limitations in language abilities.