Domestic violence survivors are a unique subset of brain injury.  Many have experienced several types of brain injury from blunt force trauma and strangulation inflicted on them by their abusers.  They commonly experience several types of trauma and mental health struggles.  Substance use and limited social support can also play a role.  Getting survivors the services they need to address all the challenges they face requires a unique set of interventions.  The Ohio State University’s health equity intervention scientist, Julianna Nehmeth, is working on just this.  Her research focuses on developing, providing, and evaluating sets of interventions that are used by lay people to guide conversations with survivors, identify their needs, and connect them with services to best meet the survivor where she is at.  You won’t want to miss hearing about this transformative work!In this episode:Julianna’s research focuses on how DV survivors with brain injuries can get better access to servicesOne in three women are affected by domestic violence (DV): some groups have even higher incidences.  It is a widespread public health issueJulianna started doing community based action research to better understand the needs of the survivors and centers that help them.  Her research focuses on modifying interventions to better meet all their needs.  Many DV survivors develop BI because blunt force head trauma and strangulation are common types of abuse.  Ohio Domestic Violence Network received a federal grant focused on developing interventions for domestic violence service organizations to better meet the mental health needs of DV survivors with brain injuryJulianna did a needs assessment.  What she found was that the advocates who help DV survivors were unaware of brain injury as being an issueThey also interviewed survivors and found  that over 8 in 10 had been hit in the head or had their head hit into something.  Over half of the survivors had this happen so many times that they couldn’t report a numberOver 8 in 10 survivors also reported strangulationMany survivors do not realize they have brain injuriesIn the DV population, many survivors experience TBI from blunt force trauma combined with an anoxic or hypoxic brain injury from strangulation. This is a unique population as many brain injury studies do not focus on brain injury due to multiple causesThese survivors suffer from trauma, ongoing stress, mental health struggles, racial trauma, and sociocultural trauma.The DV brain injury population is highly complex and suffers from a type of brain injury that hasn’t been studied at all. Her team reached out to The Ohio State University's CBI mouse research program to shine a light on this gap Current interventions to help this population were not effective to support the DV BI population.  Julianna’s work focuses on bridging this gap. There are also many unmet mental health needs in this populationCheck out the work of Cecilia Mengo to learn moreJulianna’s work made interventions for advocates in community based organizations to better meet the needs of the DV BI populationThey made Care Tools to help advocates directly communicate with survivors about brain injury and mental healthTheir tools are free on the Ohio Domestic...

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