CATT for Women’s Support Workers is available online in English and French
A new training course from UBC researchers aims to provide critical education for frontline workers to recognize signs and symptoms of brain injury in survivors of intimate partner violence.
According to the World Health Organization, one in three women will experience intimate partner violence. Most will also suffer a brain injury.
“For many years, concussion research has focused almost exclusively on brain injury experienced in the context of sports, motor vehicle crashes, the workplace and the military,” says Paul van Donkelaar, professor of health and exercise sciences at UBC Okanagan and principal researcher on the project. “But brain injury is a prominent, and largely invisible, injury among survivors of intimate partner violence for which frontline staff at women’s shelters have typically received minimal, if any training.”
To tackle this issue, and further explore the intersection of brain injury in intimate partner violence, van Donkelaar, together with Karen Mason, former executive director of the Kelowna Women’s Shelter, formed the Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury through Research (SOAR) initiative, based at UBC Okanagan.
Read the full story here: UBC Okanagan News