Extract from article that focuses on injuries caused by physical assault in a family context:
Researchers from Victoria's Monash University examined data from hospital admissions between July 2006 and June 2017, and found that 40 per cent of 16,000 family violence victims had sustained a brain injury.
While the victims were most often women, the report found nearly one in three of the victims were children — and one in four of them had sustained a brain injury.
"They're shocking figures and yet the vast majority of women who experience family violence don't get medical attention," said Nick Rushworth, chief executive of Brain Injury Australia.
"So it's bound to be the tip of a very large iceberg.
"While around 1,800 victims of family violence go to Victorian hospitals each year, there are 26,000 cases referred to specialist family violence services and 37,000 intervention orders sought in the courts."
Brain Injury Australia has called for the creation of an integrated brain injury and family violence service to support diagnosis, rehabilitation and harm reduction, to bridge what it calls "significant gaps" in service responses and support.
Many victims were also unaware of the cumulative impact of mild traumatic brain injuries "and the fact that multiple blows to the head over a long period of time can really lead to significant disability and brain injury", Dr Ayton said.
She said the report also found that perpetrators were twice as likely to have sustained a brain injury themselves in the past — in some cases, inflicted during childhood — creating "a vicious cycle of inter-generational violence".