Government MPs have backed Shellharbour MP Anna Watson's call for domestic violence victims with head injuries to be treated the same as those who received them on the sporting field.
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In a motion delivered on the floor of state parliament, Ms Watson said the government needed to introduce protocols to deal with domestic violence victims reporting to public hospitals with head injuries.
She cited a Victorian government study that found 40 per cent of victims of family violence who attended Victorian hospitals over a 10-year period sustained a brain injury.
"Through many of my discussions with people with acquired brain injuries, particularly women, I have learned that they do not even know they are suffering from a brain injury," Ms Watson said.
"When they do finally seek assistance from their GP and their brain injury is discovered, it is very hard to treat. It is a lifelong, permanent injury."
Ms Watson said a sportsperson knocked unconscious during a game automatically had a CT scan - a process that was not offered to domestic violence victims with facial injuries.
"In NSW there are no mandatory protocols when a person reports to the emergency department," she said.
"I call on the government and the Health Minister - we have had conversations about this and I must say that he is very sympathetic - to support this motion so we can ensure that, at a minimum, we are screening these women and their children for brain injuries due to family and domestic violence."
The motion was passed by the parliament, with government MP and former police officer Mark Taylor saying it "rings true" because he had interviewed domestic violence victims in hospital.
Mr Taylor said sporting injuries were easier to assess because the individual was able to provide "timely information" in relation to what had happened.
"The injury is also likely to have been witnessed and observed by spectators and other players on the field, providing staff with additional information to support the assessment and treatment of the injury," Mr Taylor said.
"For people who experience head injury due to domestic violence, it may be much harder for the victim survivors to seek support and access treatment for the injury."
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
