Member Profiles
These stories will introduce some of our members and give a brief outline of what has happened, what is happening and what they would like to see happen in their lives.
Some of these profiles appear with interview questions, which have been posed by another member. They will continue to appear in the newsletter under the heading Attender Moment.
Ben - Read my profile...
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I was a professional stuntman and sports instructor at the time of my accident. I also worked as a DJ and music journalist. I was skydiving in 2002, on my thousandth jump, and something went wrong with the parachute. I was in a coma for several months. After I came out of hospital, I went home to London to live with my mother. I’m physically weak, I get tired easily, I have some visual problems and my confidence is pretty low.My main goal at Headway is to improve my confidence and my insight into my situation. I’ve decided not to work on my physical health at the centre because I do a lot of physical therapy and sports on other days of the week. I like to talk about my life so I bring in old photos to show people and I use the computer to write down my life story in detail. I’ve spent time here re-learning the piano, and playing music with other people. I play the flute in a group here. I’ve also been on a couple of visits to riding stables to be around horses. I used to work with horses on film shoots and still love them.
My favourite thing about Headway is the people - they are lovely. I talk a lot to everyone and enjoy my music lessons. My brain is definitely improving!
- Susan - Read my profile...
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In 2002 I was having a routine eye test related to my diabetes when the optician said something was wrong. I went straight to hospital and had a series of operations to remove a brain tumour. Since then I’ve had weakness on my left side, severe headaches, blurred vision and memory problems. I also get irritable and I hevn’t been able to return to my job as a translator in a solicitor’s office. My husband has given up his studies to take care of me and our young son. We don’t really have any friends or relatives in the UK. I’d really like to regain my independence and eventually get back to work.I’ve regained a lot of mobility on my left side and I use the gym at Headway every week to build up my strength. I love using the computers and I read the news sites on the internet to keep up with the political situation in my home country, Iran. I’ve gained a lot of support from sharing life stories with other people and I love going on outings with my Headway friends. I’ve also been working on GCSE Business Studies papers and improving my English reading skills.
- John - Read my profile...
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In 2002 I suffered a brain tumour (a glioma). I had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy and mercifully survived. I worked as an actor for a little after the operation, but then a crushing depression set in and I took myself to Beachy Head to commit suicide. I was picked up by the police, and voluntarily sectioned at St Pancras Hospital. I was an inpatient for 2 months, then an outpatient. The psychiatrist I saw there suggested I contact Headway to be an attender: I came to meet the staff, who said I would be better as a volunteer, so in Oct 2006 I started volunteering.This was a big step for me, as it was my first interaction with the outside world after months in hospital, so I was nervous as I came to Headway’s former building on Austin St. It was a real relief to find I was working with people who had plenty of sympathy and understanding of brain injury and the effects it has on the individual. I soon began to realise how lucky I had been with my brain injury when I saw how it had affected other service users much more seriously. I also began to feel empowered by being able to help them. I came once a week, and helped attenders with tasks they were carrying out: art, gardening, music. Much time was simply spent talking to clients over a cup of tea, as I’d been told how important this was, and could feel how much it helped me. It is very useful having the picture chart with photos and names of attenders and staff, as it takes away the pressure to remember names, showing Headway’s understanding of the effects of brain injury.
I began to understand more about brain injury, which was very helpful for me, especially when I saw how depression was a common after-effect. I saw how injury to different parts of the brain, in different ways, could vastly affect the individual’s capacity to interact with the outside world.
I mentioned that I had been an actor, and with the help of 2 actor friends, I put on a dramatherapy workshop for the attenders. We had spoken to staff about scenes that would be of most relevance to the group (e.g. an individual getting aggressive in a Citizens’ Advice Bureau) and performed them before asking clients to suggest other ways to perform them. I took great pleasure in seeing how some clients responded to this.
I used my confidence in front of groups to give a presentation about my trip to Peru in December ‘08. It was a 20 minute talk with accompanying slides. I was pleasing to note how well the presentation was received even by those with limited communication skills- a sign that I had learned something from my time at Headway about interacting with people with different communication needs. This will be useful in the job I am about to commence.
As part of my own recovery I have volunteered as a horticultural therapist at Thrive in Battersea Park, and found great benefit from working outdoors. As a result, I got involved with the gardening group using Arnold Circus next to the former site, then the terrace outside the new building. I think this work is remarkably beneficial for mental and physical recovery (not to mention making the garden look more inviting!) and hope it continues at Headway.
I went on a number of the trips for attenders that were set up at the centre, and enjoyed these opportunities to get to know them better, in a different environment to that we usually shared. It was interesting to see how some clients, who were almost silent in the day centre, opened up when on outings and visits.
The support of staff at Headway was very important: it allowed me to rebuild my confidence in a supportive atmosphere before re-engaging with the outside world. I had been applying for jobs since coming to the centre, and on one occasion Tony and two other members of staff staged a mock interview for me to practice my responses under pressure in a safe environment. I’d like to thank Tony & the guys for that. I was keen to attend the training sessions on brain injury that were laid on at the centre, and to be able to contribute personal experiences to the discussions within them. They helped give me a much broader understanding of brain injury: I thought that because I had my own experience of it, I knew exactly what it was and how to treat it. I’m now aware of how vastly it can differ in the ways it affects various individuals.
The companionship of fellow volunteers made a big difference to my time at Headway: finding out what motivated people to get involved was fascinating, and watching how different volunteers interacted with different clients. I’d been unable to work with one attender when he got aggravated, and it was very useful to have another volunteer say to me “When X gets aggressive, try simply taking him away from the situation rather than trying to resolve it there and then”.
I have recently been offered a job as a support worker at Turning Point’s residential home, working with ex-offenders with mental health problems. This would not have been possible without my time as a volunteer at Headway, so I would like to express my thanks to the team for their help and wish them all the best for the future.
Headway UK