Our trip to the World Congress on Brain Injury in Dublin

Members of our Foundation team (the team responsible for policy and innovation with Brainkind – formerly The Disabilities Trust) visited Dublin for the 14th World Congress on Brain Injury. It was organised by the International Brain Injury Association (IBIA) and is the largest gathering of international professionals working in the field of brain injury – so was the perfect place for us to go and build new connections as well as showcasing some of our work.

It was great to hear from and connect with a broad range of speakers on diverse topics from all over the world, many of whom are globally renowned and leading in their respective areas. The event had over 200 oral presentations, 600 poster presentations, five keynote speeches and more – so we were spoilt for choice.

We heard about the links between brain injuries and domestic abuse, the connections of brain injuries and the criminal justice system, the importance of female concussion protocols for women athletes, and heard of examples of behaviour and environmental interventions for people living with ABIs around the world, and so much more.

One of the highlights of the conference was the opportunity to speak at a session focused on brain injury in the Criminal Justice system. I was able to share lessons I’ve learned from domestic abuse survivors and practitioners in developing and implementing our project on acquired brain injury. My colleague, Sarah Turner, also presented on the associations between traumatic brain injury and domestic violence within women in a UK prison.

These are both significant areas of focus for Brainkind, and so it was great to be able to update on progress, and make new connections with people working in these areas. All of us who attended came away having made lots of new connections, and full of new ideas how to improve the lives of people with brain injury.

Stephanie Bechelet, Domestic Abuse & Brain Injury Researcher