The Women's Interval Home of Sarnia-Lambton is conducting research into the connection of intimate partner violence (IPV) and acquired brain injury (ABI) and how services can be improved to better support survivors.
Executive Director Jennifer Vansteenkiste said their research began after learning about a statistic that one in four Canadian women have an undiagnosed and unsupported brain injury.
"We have survivor research groups where we sit together and we talk about their experience, what kinds of symptoms they're having, what kind of support they are finding or not finding in the community, and what do they think their needs are," said Vansteenkiste. "Some of the symptoms we might talk about include hearing, speech, sight impairment, maybe balance or sleep disorders, anxiety, memory loss, emotional regulation, and maybe chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia."
Vansteenkiste said ABI can be linked to a single traumatic event or it could be an accumulation of damage sustained over years of abuse.
"When women go to health care professionals, doctors rarely link IPV with a brain injury. Often, the women in our group told us they were just dismissed by their [general practitioners] when they complained about some of their symptoms," she said. "So this lack of formal diagnosis is really a missed opportunity for treatment and getting these people back on track."
From those meetings, Vansteenkiste said information will be collected to create a community resource database.
"Once that mapping exercise is finished, we'll be moving into a pilot study where we start getting a more formal diagnosis for our survivors and then helping them access some of these new resources that we've identified," she said.
Vansteenkiste said the information gathered would not only benefit the organization but the general public as well. For example, builders may want to keep those with brain injuries in mind when installing lighting fixtures.
At the Women's Interval Home, Vansteenkiste said they have switched to LED lighting and have installed dimmer switches. They're also looking at sound dampening in their conference room.
The intake process has also changed.
"We ask questions about brain injury, where we didn't before," Vansteenkiste said. "We might break up the intake process so it's not so overwhelming. That information is also important for the public because as service providers, we might have someone come to us for assistance and it might seem odd that they can't finish the paperwork or they can't answer the questions appropriately. Really, these are just symptoms of a potential brain injury."
Vansteenkiste emphasized those with a brain injury can still be highly functional and successful.
"There are many different types of brain injuries and so people need to be optimistic about their recovery," she said.
Vansteenkiste said initially they completed basic research work with funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation in 2022. The research was then used to gain grant funding in 2023 from the Shoppers Foundation for Women's Health.
So far the Women's Interval Home has hosted one focus group and Vansteenkiste said they're looking to conduct a second.
Those interested in participating in survivor research groups can contact the organization. Survivors are asked to participate in three sessions.
This portion of the project is expected to be completed sometime next year.
At which point, Vansteenkiste said they will apply for other grants to build upon their research.