OVWA Special Webinar Wednesday – Brain Injury, Strangulation, CARE and Advocacy for Victims of Crime

In the first community-based study of its kind, published in 2019, researchers from Ohio State and the Ohio Domestic Violence Network found that 81% of women who have been abused and sought help have suffered a head injury, and 83% have been strangled. Nearly half of the women in the study had been hit in the head too many times to remember, and more than half were choked at least a few times. Some said they lived through both, often concurrently.

Please join Rachel Ramirez, LISW-S, RASS, Director of Health and Disability Programs and the Founder of the Center on Partner-Inflicted Brain Injury at the Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN), and Julienne Long, PhD Forensic Psychology and Advocacy Coordinator for the City of Columbus Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, to take a deep dive into the impact of these injuries on victims of crime and their ability to heal, and best practices in supporting victims of crime who have experienced these injuries within both community- and systems-based advocacy.

CARE (Connect, Acknowledge, Respond, Evaluate) is an intervention based on survivors’ experiences and what service providers identified as needed to address brain injury and complex mental health concerns in advocacy practice, and was developed in partnership with OSU and the Center for Partner-Inflicted Brain Injury.

CARE is about connecting with survivors and acknowledging that blunt force head trauma, strangulation and other types of oxygen deprivation, mental health issues, and suicide ideation are widespread among this population, and responding to the needs of survivors in a way that is accessible given the interplay of trauma, mental health, and brain injury concerns. We will learn about resources that advocates and partner agencies can use to implement CARE, including materials to address head trauma, strangulation, and their impact using simple language.

If you require accommodations to attend this training, please email us at info@ovwa.org by 5-28-24.

This training is open to all.

This training is preapproved for CEUs from OAN, NACP, and the State of Ohio CSWMFT Board.