Grant to aid in brain screenings for intimate partner violence survivors

UNMC recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to improve screening for brain injury among survivors of intimate partner violence.

Shireen Rajaram, PhD, associate professor of health promotion in the UNMC College of Public Health and principal investigator of the grant, will collaborate with community-based organizations serving survivors of intimate partner violence across Nebraska to increase secondary prevention of brain injury.

With funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the research team will investigate ways to improve the timely detection of probable brain injury and provide follow-up referral services. Their approach will use a combination of community-engaged research and implementation science to identify strategies to better serve survivors of intimate partner violence.

“This new funding enables us to look closely at how community-based organizations across Nebraska respond to intimate partner violence survivors’ brain injury needs,” Dr. Rajaram said. “Our preliminary research revealed that 91% of women accessing services at community-based organizations serving survivors of intimate partner violence reported they had been hit in the head or strangled.”

Women who experience intimate partner violence are at high risk for repeated hits to their head, face and neck and attempted strangulations — all of which increase the likelihood for a brain injury. Brain injuries can have long-term consequences for survivors’ cognitive, psychosocial and physical functioning, as well as their mental health and quality of life. Often, repeated brain injuries occur before healing from the initial trauma, resulting in long-lasting, damaging effects. Comprehensive screening and timely interventions at the community level may help mitigate the effects of these brain injuries.

The research team seeks a better understanding of strategies generated by community stakeholders serving survivors of intimate partner violence that are based both on best practices of implementation science and the knowledge of community-based organizations that work with this population every day. These strategies can be tailored to other settings regionally and nationally to enhance brain injury screening and referral to support services.

The four-year study will involve community-based organizations serving survivors of intimate partner violence in Nebraska. Partners from Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte, Gering and Alliance, among other locations, will participate in the project.

“This is an important project that will provide much-needed attention to an overlooked issue of a possible brain injury among survivors of intimate partner violence,” said Amber Jurgens, director of survivor leadership at the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. Jurgens previously worked with Dr. Rajaram and the research team on an initial project to increase screening and referral for brain injury at Friendship Home, a shelter for survivors of intimate partner violence.

In addition to Dr. Rajaram, UNMC co-investigators include Christopher Wichman, PhD, associate professor of biostatistics in the UNMC College of Public Health, and Matthew Garlinghouse, PhD, assistant professor of neurological sciences in the UNMC College of Medicine.

Co-investigators also include Kathy Chiou, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Paul Estabrooks, PhD, professor and assistant dean in the University of Utah College of Health, and Peggy Reisher, executive director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Nebraska.

“We are excited to expand our initial work with Dr. Rajaram and other UNMC and University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers on brain injury in this vulnerable population of intimate partner violence survivors to other community-based organizations across Nebraska,” Reisher said. “Working with community partners that serve survivors of intimate partner violence greatly expands and sustains our outreach efforts.”