When raising awareness becomes TBI victim blaming

Michelle #jumbledbrain — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 14:48:32 +0000

There is still a lot of misunderstanding about traumatic brain injury and the long term effects. One area which is starting to be better appreciated is concussions in sports. In a number of sports it has become protocol to take a player off the field the moment a concussion is suspected to minimise the damage and maximise recovery. This is an important culture charge and I hope that improvements in attitudes and treatments continues in this vain. Thankfully, I have yet to see people blame a sports person for a TBI they sustained whilst competing in a sport. It seems to be accepted, and rightly so, that these injuries are an unfortunate accident that the sporting authorities need to do everything within their power to try to prevent. When a TBI does happen to a player they must get the support they need and everyone else needs to analyse if there is anything that can be done differently to minimise the risk of it happening again.

However, the same can’t always the said for other causes of a TBI.

As someone who sustained a severe brain injury in a car accident, I always find I feel I need to clarify that the accident wasn’t my fault. Part of me assumed that this was my own hidden prejudice and/or ego that lead me to do this. But on national alcohol screening day, (I think this only happens in America, it’s certainly not a thing here in the UK) a prominent Not-for-profit put out a post on social media which validated my need to defend myself.

We already struggle with people under estimating how our invisible disability effects we, especially since we can have days when we APPEAR to be doing well. This can lead people to think that we play up to it or use it as an excuse when it suits us. The last thing we need is for them to be given another reason to withhold compassion.

I’m not going to name the Not-for-profit involved as I have no doubt that they do important work for many survivors and I do not want them to be trolled for this oversight. I already told them how their wording made it sound like TBI survivors caused their own circumstances, although I’m not sure they quite accepted that they could have worded it better.

“30% – 50% people treated for TBI who were under the influence of alcohol at the time of injury” is what they chose to post, with no other context. Firstly, if we get past the bad grammar and badly constructed sentence, they appear to be saying that a lot of us were drunk when we sustained our brain injury. They give no indication as to where they get their figures from. I’m confident that not everyone who sustains a TBI is screened for alcohol, this would only be relevant for drivers if the police are looking to see if they need to prosecute for driving under the influence. Anyone who had an accident at home, for example, wouldn’t need to be screened for alcohol. Even those who were assaulted whilst out drinking this post represents unfairly. They are the victim, but by focusing on their alcohol consumption makes it sound like they got what they deserved. Only after I challenged them for victim shaming did they clarify that they were referring to driving under the influence, but anyone who was just scrolling through their social media feed probably wouldn’t have seen this.

When you are acting as an authority on your subject you have an increased responsibility to be clear and accurate.

This organisation wants to do what they can the prevent brain injuries wherever possible, and I support that wholeheartedly. Drink driving is a very dangerous thing to do and too many lives are lost or forever changed as a result of it. Therefore, anything that we can do to convince people not to do it, the better. Particularly since it’s not just the individual who is at risk. Both passengers, other motorists and pedestrians are put in grave danger every time someone gets behind the wheel after consuming alcohol. This is why this badly worded post upsets me so much. They are many brain injury survivors who sustained their life changing injury as a result of SOMEONE ELSE’S drink driving. They are the victim, but this post could make people assume it was their fault through the perceived choice to drive whilst under the influence. We already struggle with people who underestimate haw our invisible disability effects us. They can accuse us of “playing up to it” or using it as an excuse “when it suits us”. This kind of badly thought out post can give people just another reason to condone showing us a compassionless attitude.

I want to implore anyone who is working as an authority on brain injury to double check any posts they put out like this. Double, triple check it. Ask someone else what they take from the post and what they think it is trying to say. It’s not uncommon for us to not realise that, without context, people can read our message differently from how we intended it. Make sure you are helping to raise understanding as well as awareness, and not adding to the discrimination and misunderstanding we feel everyday.

Do you think organisations need to be careful on social media to avoid posting updates which don’t serve our brain injury community?

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When raising awareness becomes TBI victim blaming

However, the same can’t always the said for other causes of a TBI.

When you are acting as an authority on your subject you have an increased responsibility to be clear and accurate.

Do you think organisations need to be careful on social media to avoid posting updates which don’t serve our brain injury community?