LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: When we talk about acquired brain injury, what usually comes to mind is a car accident or a sporting field incident or even a couple of blokes in a drunken fight on a Friday night. But in an average week in Australia, three women are hospitalised with a traumatic brain injury caused by family violence. There are other cases that go unreported or undiagnosed. Some women are hurt in a one-off attack and others suffer the cumulative effect of months or years of blows to the head. An advocacy group, Brain Injury Australia, is calling for extra support for these hidden victims. Tracy Bowden reports.

TONITAH WRIGHT, DAUGHTER: This photo was taken at the house.

TONI WRIGHT: At the old house, I know. I don't like it because it's from the old house where I was attacked.

TONITAH WRIGHT: Yeah. Brings back a lot of memories.

TONI WRIGHT: It sure does, darl. ... It's changed me big time. It's changed my life. It's changed who I am and what I was. I know I'm a bit slow and I get upset and it hurts me when other people can see it and how I talk.

TRACY BOWDEN, REPORTER: Toni Wright's brain damage is the direct result of a vicious attack in her own home.

TONI WRIGHT: He was kicking me in the head. I had a big gash down my head and my face was busted all up on this side (touching right side of face). So I was in a mess and I had my grandson with me.

TRACY BOWDEN: But this was no random crime. Toni's attacker was her daughter's ex-boyfriend.

TONI WRIGHT: He just thought by being violent towards us that he was gonna get her back, but I wasn't gonna let him come back and take over. 'Cause that's how I am; I'm her mum.

MARIA CUTMORE, SISTER: Tonitah rang us at midnight and said that mum was in hospital and it was quite a shock for us to come in and see sister, but she's here with us now.

TONI WRIGHT: And, you know, I just feel so sorry for any women who've got to go through what I've been through.

TRACY BOWDEN: Toni Wright's family is now caring for a very different woman.

MARIA CUTMORE: She was fiery, she was quick wit, comeback quick and she never took nothing from anyone. But now, it's all changed. She used to be my protector sometimes, but now we're protecting her.

TONITAH WRIGHT: I've seen her work two jobs pretty much my whole life and just to see that I've taken the role of basically of the parent and doing what a mother is supposed to do, it does hurt me a bit, but I'm forever grateful my mother is alive.

TRACY BOWDEN: These women now recognise others in their community who are living with brain injury caused by an all-too-common crime.

TONI WRIGHT: We see a lot of our women ...

MARIA CUTMORE: It's the first place that the man'll attack is the face, is the head.

TONI WRIGHT: This here (raises right hand to face).

NICK RUSHWORTH, EXEC. OFFICER, BRAIN INJURY AUST.: There's good evidence that - from studies that have been conducted in multiple jurisdictions that the hospitalisation rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women with head injury due to assault is 70 times, seven-zero times that of non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

TRACY BOWDEN: Two years since her attack, Toni Wright still needs regular occupational therapy and she's not alone. The support group Brain Injury Australia is calling for a greater focus on finding and helping the victims of family violence.

NICK RUSHWORTH: Three women are hospitalised each and every week in this country with a traumatic brain injury, the result of an assault by her partner or ex-partner. There is really good brain injury rehabilitation nationwide for the more severe end of the brain injury spectrum. There also needs to be matching services for those women who are living with the cumulative effects of many assaults to their head.

RICHARD PARKINSON, NEUROSURGEON: And what you can see here is there's these little white dots at the front here which indicate that the patient's suffered an injury to the brain and these white dots are bruising or what we call contusions to the brain.

TRACY BOWDEN: Neurosurgeon Dr Richard Parkinson believes many women who've suffered head injuries don't go to hospital, but live with the consequences.

RICHARD PARKINSON: Brain injuries cause, commonly, problems with executive function such as planning, forethought, memory, emotional control. That can have knock-on effects with your children, with your relationships and with your ability to get out of that relationship if it's an abusive one.

REBECCA SCIROLI: I can close my hand on something, but it's harder to open because the messages is to open my hand are confused and that's what causes the spasticity.

TRACY BOWDEN: Rebecca Sciroli has been living with traumatic brain injury for 17 years. She still doesn't understand why her stepfather attacked her with a hammer.

REBECCA SCIROLI: I felt these thumps on my head and he kept hitting. I had my hands over my head and I was screaming, "Why? Why are you doing this to me?" And he kept hitting me until I went unconscious. Basically, my skull was shattered and all the little shards were in this section of my brain (pointing to front right side of brain), embedded.

TRACY BOWDEN: Before the attack, Rebecca had graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours. She now teaches art to people with disabilities.

REBECCA SCIROLI: I've come to terms with what's happened to me personally, but I'm angry at the fact that this kind of violence exists, that some men think that they have the right to make this decision to be violent.

RICHARD PARKINSON: This is a really important issue and I think, you know, if people can be made aware of how bad it is to hit somebody in the head, it's not like a cartoon where people will just get up and be a bit dizzy and then they may go on their merry way. Every time you lose consciousness, you've suffered a permanent head injury.

TONI WRIGHT: If you can stop it and get away, you get away. 'Cause it's not nice having a brain injury.

LEIGH SALES: Tracy Bowden reporting.