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Homeless shelter provider launches program to screen domestic violence survivors for brain injuries
By
Chau Lam
Published Oct 25, 2022
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By
Chau Lam
Published Oct 25, 2022
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A homeless shelter provider is launching a pilot program to screen survivors of domestic violence for traumatic brain injuries.
Last Friday, social workers at seven homeless shelters run by Volunteers of America-Greater New York began surveying incoming residents for signs of traumatic brain injuries in an effort to identify the signs and connect domestic violence survivors to medical professionals, said Myung J. Lee, president and CEO of the organization.
“So, when you hear concussion, you think about the football players and the damage that's been done to the football players,” Lee said. “And while that is serious, there are about 10 million people that are survivors of domestic violence every year and we're not addressing this issue with regard to those 10 million people.”
Research shows that 70%-90% of domestic violence incidents involve injuries to the head or the neck, Lee said, but little has been done to learn more about the connection between brain injuries and domestic violence survivors, many of whom are women of color.
The set of questions is designed to look for physical, sensory, cognitive, and behavioral signs and symptoms of brain injuries.
Do they have headaches, dizziness, or problems with speech? Are they sensitive to light or have blurred vision? Have they been kicked in the head or punched or struck with a fist?
“What we're going to do is to make it a routine assessment, to ask questions of everybody coming through this system,” said Lee.
She said there are about 4,000 people living in the city’s shelter system because they are abused by a partner at home. Her group serves about 10% of that population.
In what Lee described as the first-of-its-kind program in the nation, she hopes the project will fill a gap in the medical literature regarding intimate partner violence and traumatic brain injuries.
“We know, and we can pretty much bet money, if I was a betting woman, that most of our clients that are coming to our shelters have some form of brain injury,” Lee said. “But there's no data to back that up and without that data, it is really hard for us to either ask for or to create any kind of interventions.”
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housing
Health and Science
Chau Lam
Chau Lam was a reporter at Gothamist.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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