Saskatchewan organizations draw attention to brain injuries, domestic violence

The Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association is bringing awareness to victims of interpersonal violence days before Concussion Awareness Day on Sept. 15, 2023.

The executive director said they are developing a program to address this issue called Purple Thursday, which will be held on the third Thursday in October.

“We’re holding a great big event in Saskatoon. We’re bringing in the researchers who’ve been working on this, and they also have been developing resources to help with the problem,” said Glenda James.

“We’re bringing them all into a one-day symposium. This has never happened before. So, we just thought we’d do a big launch.”

James said it is problematic to diagnose concussions, but when it comes to concussions in situations of interpersonal violence, the person may not be in the best condition.

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“They don’t recognize the concussion …  but the other thing that happens is when they’re in a situation where either an intake worker or a police person is interviewing them, they may not be coherent,” said James.

“If you’ve got a concussion, bright lights really are distracting … so they’re experiencing all these symptoms of a concussion, but the person that is there to help them doesn’t realize what’s going on. … we’re trying to make people really aware of that.”

The Regina Transition House (RTH) executive director said women have probably experienced some type of violence more than once before going into a shelter.

“The more times it happens, the greater impact it seems to have on quality of life,” said Stephanie Taylor. “Something we’re watching for all the time with women who experience physical violence is just their memory, their ability to retain information (and) process information. That’s a big red flag for us.”

Taylor said even if a person is not diagnosed with a brain injury due to head trauma or strangulation, they would still require support. Taylor said she is glad that awareness of concussions due to interpersonal violence is happening.

“I hope that all the efforts around building awareness will encourage women who are in physically violent situations to do the courage to leave, to reach out for help,” she said.

According to a release, the Purple Thursday event will take place on Oct. 19, 2023, at Saskatoon’s TCU Place, where Canadian researchers will be presenting what they’ve learned about IPV-caused brain injuries and the resources being developed to help those experiencing IPV-caused brain injury.