Our Children This Month, November 2022

Fresno’s Silent But Devastating Epidemic:  Domestic Violence

"This group has a shocking concussion rate. It's not football players," read a recent Washington Post headline. The article highlighted the national attention and concern for injured NFL athletes after Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered two blows to the head just a few days apart. After the second blow, he was seen by millions being carried off  the field on a stretcher to the hospital with visible signs of a concussion. After sustained public outrage, the NFL and NFL Players Association quickly investigated and modified the league's concussion protocols. Missing from the story about the devastating impact of  blows to NFL players’ heads was an exponentially larger but totally ignored group of Americans who are regularly experiencing very high rates of concussions and other serious injuries–both child and adult victims of domestic violence. They are repeatedly subjected to types of abuse—punched and hit in  the head with hard objects, thrown against a wall or slammed against the floor—that may cause brain damage. But, unlike amateur and professional athletes, the victims of domestic violence are not wearing protective helmets.