“It took me about 30 seconds to say yes,” said Trevor Linden about partnering with the YWCA Vancouver on their My Concussion Story campaign.
Linden appeared in a compelling commercial for the campaign where he related what seemed to be his own story of dealing with a hockey-related concussion.
Only, 30 seconds into the commercial, it’s revealed that Linden is instead sharing a woman’s story about suffering a concussion as a result of intimate partner violence.
The former captain of the Vancouver Canucks got involved when he was approached by Rethink, a creative group that had previous worked with Linden on the Don’t Change Much campaign for the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation. When they pitched him on the My Concussion Story campaign and his potential role, Linden immediately agreed to be a part of it.
“I think for me, when I understood the issue and the numbers behind it, I was shocked and I think most people are,” said Linden.
"The numbers behind intimate partner violence and concussion were just staggering."
According to the YWCA Vancouver, 290,000 women, girls, and gender-diverse people experience intimate partner violence every year in Canada and this violence frequently results in concussions, with 7,000 concussions compared to every one concussion suffered by an NHL player.
“When we think of concussion we think of hockey players in Canada or athletes, and that's the normal connection — so and so hockey player is out with a concussion,” said Linden. “But the numbers behind intimate partner violence and concussion were just staggering.”
Linden also resonated with the campaign on a personal level, as he wanted to set an example for his own family.
“I have a six-year-old son and I want him to know that Dad cares about women's rights and equality and wants to be a voice of change and awareness,” said Linden. “So, it was really an honor to partner with the YWCA that does so much amazing work for women and their families across our country.”
"It really resonated with so many people."
The response to the campaign has caught Linden off guard, as many people have reached out to him since the video went up online.
“It really resonated with so many people,” said Linden. “Men, women, families and their teenage boys, teenage girls saying, 'Hey, this opened up a whole conversation that we're able to have.' Obviously, talking with your teenagers is sometimes difficult, but this really was a conduit to that.”
Linden recognized that his presence as a well-known sports figure, particularly in Vancouver, helps make the video so much more impactful and speaks to an audience that might not otherwise consider the issue of intimate partner violence.
But he’s also heard from many people who resonated with the video on a different level.
“People that I don't know, strangers, women have come up to me and said, ‘That was my story. Thank you for sharing that,’” said Linden. “It’s so heartbreaking for me. I don’t even know what to say. I’m humbled by that.”
"Women who experience violence are unseen, unheard."
The intent behind the video was to change the conversation surrounding concussions to go beyond sports, which is where that conversation frequently stops. When an athlete gets a concussion, it’s frequently headline news and there’s a growing understanding of what that means for an athlete and how it affects them outside of their sport.
That’s not the case for other victims of concussions.
“Sports figures who are injured, people hear it, they see it, they care about it, but women who experience violence are unseen, unheard,” said Lisa Rupert, the vice president of housing and violence prevention with YWCA Vancouver. “[Trevor] brought their voice forward.”
There’s also a difference in the aftermath of initially suffering a concussion. As knowledge of brain injuries has grown in sports through extensive research, the standard of care that athletes receive has likewise grown. The same growth in understanding has not necessarily taken place outside of sports.
“When I first started in 1988 in the National Hockey League, there was no such thing as concussion,” said Linden. “You know, we got our bell rung and we were like, oh, yeah, take some Tylenol.”
“We're at the point you were at Trevor, at the beginning of your career,” responded Rupert. “Women don't know that they might get a concussion from being hit in the head or strangled. It happens, they're in pain, they take some Tylenol and they probably don't do anything else about it. That's what we're seeing.”
"A lot of women don't want to tell anyone."
The YWCA Vancouver operates transition houses for women who are leaving abusive relationships and need housing and support. In many cases, women coming to a transition house have suffered a likely concussion but have never seen a doctor about it and don’t know the long-term symptoms that may result.
“It has an impact on their lives, it has an impact on their children's lives,” said Rupert. “They need to have that clear pathway to care so that they're able to, first of all, get the medical attention they need, but also so that it's understood the depth of the problem and we invest more money into it, we need to invest more research into it.
“The other problem is we don't have enough support for women to leave their abusers to stop this from happening. The government needs to invest more particularly in affordable housing, because right now with the economy the way it is women can't afford to leave.”
Without that broader safety net of support in place, many women suffer in silence.
“A lot of women don't want to tell anyone. They're not going to see a doctor or to a care house because they don't want their kids to be taken away, they don't want to be in trouble with their partner and what that may lead to,” said Linden. “They don’t say anything and then they don’t even understand that they have a concussion.”
Linden also pointed out that one of the biggest issues in hockey is suffering a second concussion while still recovering from a first concussion. Even with all the research into concussions in sports, the timeline for recovery can still be so uncertain. That’s also a danger for those suffering concussions from intimate partner violence.
“What I see from the women who access our transition houses is that once someone has broken that barrier and physically assaulted you it happens more frequently after that,” said Rupert.
"Our ultimate goal is for people to call for change."
While the initial intent for the My Concussion Story campaign was to get the conversation started regarding concussions as a result of intimate partner violence, Rupert is hopeful that it can have a far-ranging impact on funding medical research and improving support systems.
“Our ultimate goal is for people to call for change,” said Rupert, who gave a concrete example of the types of support and change she would like to see.
“There's a great example in Victoria called The Cridge, it's attached to their transition house,” said Rupert. “It's a program specifically for women with traumatic brain injuries to support them after they've left their abusive partner. I'd like to see that across the province, across the country.
“We'd like to see the B.C. government fund more housing for women fleeing abusive partners, including long-term subsidized housing, not just transition houses,” she added. “And we call on people to donate to their local transition house, their local service for women who've experienced violence.”
As for Linden, he hopes that the campaign will help provoke conversations that help reduce intimate partner violence as a whole
“I was talking to my wife the other day and she said, even for women who have not been struck or hit, how many women have been scared at some point of their partner?” said Linden. “Even that needs to be talked about and that it’s not acceptable.
“For teenage boys to understand that there has to be a level of respect and equality and for girls to recognize that it’s not acceptable to have that type of behaviour in a partner, ever.”
More information on the campaign can be found on the My Concussion Story website.
