Alternative Care Practices to Aid in the Rehabilitation of Survivors of GBV-BI

This session will explore the effects of alternative care practices on the rehabilitation of GBV-TBI survivors. In this context, alternative care refers to practices not solely provided by institutionalized care organization or personnel.

This research is part of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) funded project on Cross-sectoral solutions to Strengthening Community Capacity to Address the ‘Parallel Pandemic’ of Gender-Based Violence-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Through a Survivor-Led Support Intervention.

Following a scoping review that explored how rehabilitation professionals such as occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech language pathologists, physiatrists were placed to offer specialized rehabilitation to survivors, the WomenatthecentrE’s Survivor Expert Collective (WE SEC), a collective of survivors with lived experience of brain injury (BI), suggested a further exploration of other ‘alternative’ care services such as music, writing, yoga, spiritual healing, pet therapy and more, that had potentially been of benefit.