Intimate partner violence can leave survivors with brain injuries that are often invisible and undiagnosed. In northern British Columbia, advocates Karen Mason and Yvonne Nielsen are calling for better awareness and support.

Mason, executive director and co-founder of Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury Through Research (SOAR), began this work after volunteering at a Kelowna women’s shelter. She says concussion and strangulation are frequently overlooked in discussions of intimate partner violence, despite their potential to cause brain injury.

“Once you know brain injury could be part of that, it changes everything about how you interact with and support a survivor,” Mason said.

Yvonne Nielson, a Terrace-based advocate with more than 30 years’ lived experience, has shared brain injury information with local police, emergency responders, health providers and elected officials. Drawing on her own acquired brain injury, she stresses that symptoms can be misunderstood.

“It’s very important to understand that the person is not drunk,” Nielson said, explaining that speech may be slower while a person’s intelligence remains intact. She also points survivors toward peer support, including Terrace’s brain injury support group.

Northern Health had the highest average annual rate of intimate-partner-violence-related homicide deaths in British Columbia from 2014 to 2024: 9.0 deaths per 1,000,000 population. There were 29 deaths in the region, the third-highest total after Fraser Health with 50 and Interior Health with 35.

Both advocates say recognizing brain injury alongside trauma can help survivors receive more compassionate, accessible care throughout northern British Columbia.