Nearly $2 million grant seeks to reduce brain injury related to partner abuse

OMAHA — A nearly $2 million grant to the University of Nebraska Medical Center aims to help reduce brain injuries and improve outcomes for survivors of intimate partner violence. 

The funding from the National Institutes of Health will allow UNMC to collaborate with community-based organizations that work with domestic violence across Nebraska.

The investigatory team, led by Shireen Rajaram, associate professor of health promotion in UNMC’s College of Public Health, is to explore ways to improve timely detection of brain injury and provide follow-up services to avoid further harm. 

Women in violent relationships are at high risk for repeated hits to their head, face and neck and for strangulation, all of which increase the likelihood for a brain injury, according to a UNMC news release on the $1.96 million grant to be used over a four-year period.

Brain injuries can have consequences for cognitive, psychosocial and physical function, as well as for mental health and quality of life. And repeat brain injuries often occur before an initial trauma has healed, resulting in long-lasting damage.

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

Comprehensive screening and intervention at the community level may mitigate effects of brain injury.

The  study will involve community-based organizations in Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte, Gering and Alliance, among other locations.

“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 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.

Other UNMC investigators include Christopher Wichman, associate professor of biostatistics in the College of Public Health, and Matthew Garlinghouse, assistant professor of neurological sciences in the College of Medicine.

On the team also are Kathy Chiou, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Paul Estabrooks, professor and assistant dean in the University of Utah College of Health; and Peggy Reisher, executive director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Nebraska.

Said Reisher: “Working with community partners that serve survivors of intimate partner violence greatly expands and sustains our outreach efforts.”