A Vancouver Canucks legend has partnered with the YWCA Metro Vancouver in a chilling campaign to raise awareness about concussions from domestic violence.
In a short video, Trevor Linden, a former captain of the NHL team and Olympian, appears to be sharing a personal story about a blow to the head, and the physical and emotional trauma that ensues. He then reveals that the experience he’s describing doesn’t belong to him.
A woman then appears on screen and confirms the story is hers, along with the text: “For every NHL concussion, over 7,000 Canadian women suffer concussions by an intimate partner.”
In an interview, Linden said he lent his voice to the campaign because he’s passionate about women’s rights at home and abroad.
Survivors of intimate partner violence don’t have access to the same diagnosis, treatment and recovery tools as hockey players, he added, and may be more willing to write off the symptoms as simply, “not feeling good today.”
“It’s something we need to bring to the forefront and make some meaningful change,” he told Global News. “I think it’s just making people aware that concussion is not just a hockey player issue.”
The campaign launched Tuesday in the midst of national Victims and Survivors of Crime Week.
Its website — linked to YWCA Metro Vancouver’s — states that while athletes and advocates have helped bring concussion research and consequences into the spotlight in the past few years, leading to new safety protocols and standards, sports are not the only leading cause of the injury in Canada.
According to the campaign, some 290,000 Canadian women, girls and gender diverse people suffer intimate partner violence each year. Among them, 92 per cent experience a traumatic brain injury as a result of the abuse.
Shaoli Choudhury, transition housing manager at YWCA Metro Vancouver said concussions from domestic violence are an “underreported” issue that the whole team felt passionate about.
“We wanted to use the power that we know a celebrity could have to bring light to issues,” she explained. “More than that, we wanted to use a male who is pretty famous locally and nationally as a tool for our story.”
Choudhury said Linden’s voice offered a powerful contrast between public perception and beliefs, and the reality faced by many women, girls and gender diverse people across the country. Intimate partner abuse is still a “taboo topic,” she added.
“What I’ve found through my work is, it’s so much more common than we think, right? Whether that be for ourselves, for a friend of a friend, a family member, or someone we once knew. The numbers are high and they’re staggering, and brain injury is a part of that.”
Symptoms of a concussion include headache, nausea or vomiting, dizziness, light and noise sensitivity, fogginess, fatigue, confusion, and more.
Dr. Paul van Donkelaar, co-founder of Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury through Research (SOAR), said many survivors don’t even know they’ve had one. Stigma around domestic violence makes it difficult to get an accurate picture of how widespread the problem is, he added.
“Intimate partner violence has a lot of consequences in general, and brain injury also can have a lot of consequences, especially if it’s undiagnosed or untreated. I think that’s very, very common in women who have experienced intimate partner violence,” van Donkelaar told Global News.
“Many who provide supports for them don’t know of the connection and don’t take it into account in the supports that they provide.”
Impacts of domestic violence, including confusion, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, can all interact with a brain injury, making it difficult to diagnose and properly attribute symptoms, van Donkelaar said.
It’s important that those who support survivors understand relationship between intimate partner violence and concussions, and provide services in a context that accounts for the fact that a brain injury may have occurred, he added.
Choudhury said she hopes the campaign leads to structural change, including more money for research and safe transitional housing.
Linden said so far, the reaction to the video has been “incredible.”
“I think if this is a message that we can share with our sons, our young people, that this is an issue — it’s not just … a female adult thing. I think it’s a … thought-starter for parents to have with their … teenage boys or with their teenage girls,” he said.
“It’s important to speak up for any women’s issue and understand the equality and what needs to happen in society.”
Women and gender diverse people experiencing violence can access support from Battered Women’s Support Services by calling the 24/7 crisis line toll-free at 1-855-687-1868.
VictimLinkBC provides toll-free multilingual support, including referral services for victims of domestic and sexual violence, at 1-800-563-080.
A map of safe shelters for women and children experiencing violence in B.C. is available online through Sheltersafe.ca.
More local resources and information can be found on the B.C. government’s website.