As I walked down the narrow hallway leading toward Headway Centre, I began wondering how such a large centre was located on the third floor of a mediocre sized building. After many discussions and lectures on the importance of brain health and rehabilitation after a TBI, my preconception of the Headway Centre was that it would be large, filled with members, and have a variety of staff and resources. My first step through the front door left me surprised and confused. Rather than the formal ‘treatment centre’ I had imagined, the entirety of Headway could almost be seen with one turn of the head, and had a more homely feeling.
After taking a few steps inside, I was greeted and introduced to all of the staff and members who were currently having breakfast. My earlier confusion remained with me as I found it difficult to completely differentiate all of the staff from those who had suffered a TBI. However, instead of seeing this as a problem, I now realize that it was better that I did not know. Stigma is something that can inhibit the well being of people suffering from TBI, whether it is intentional or unintentional (McLellan et al., 2010). My early inability to identify who was suffering from TBI allowed myself to more easily interact and have conversations with everyone as casually as possible.
During breakfast I had the opportunity to individually meet and talk with each member. From these conversations, their disabilities from TBI became more apparent. In particular, one of the members had difficulty producing comprehensible speech. From class discussions, my first thought was that it may be due to damage to Broca’s area, since he seemed to have no problems understanding what was being spoken to him.
Broca’s Area
via Wikipedia
However, this assumption was soon casted aside when this member wrote down a question for me on a piece of paper with little difficulty. This member, along with many other members who superficially only seemed to have emotional inhibitory difficulties made me realize how complicated it is to categorize the extent and symptoms of TBI. Things were not as clear cut as the literature made it seem to be. The range of cognitive functioning and how it affects one’s life was very humbling and was something that I would not have understood until my experience at Headway.
Later in the afternoon, it was finally time for bingo. At this point I was quite familiar with the members who decided to join the tournament, but I still felt a little nervous. I was uncertain of how fast I should be calling the numbers due to the wide range of cognitive abilities, and at the same time I was responsible for making sure one of the lower functioning members was correctly playing the game. By the end of it, the game was going very smoothly and I found out just how competitive bingo could be.
Overall my first experience at Headway was surprising and gave me much to think about. Headway was a small, but wonderful place that gave members a place to meet and hangout. This community brings a positive atmosphere that seemed to benefit the members greatly. From the response of the members and staff when it was time to say goodbyes, I think that I did a sufficient job in maintaining this atmosphere and can not wait to go back.
2 responses to “Breakfast & Bingo”