In my second visit to Headway, it wasn’t as crowded as last time I had been there. I was greeted by a staff member I hadn’t met yet, and she commented on the fact that not many people had attended yoga class that morning (perhaps because of the sunny weather), but that they were expecting three people to show up for baking. As I waited for the time for us to start, I chatted with Mr. Z, who used to be an F1 aficionado and knew a lot about the sport. I was impressed by the amount of past facts about racing that he knew, and we talked quite a few about Ayrton Senna (who he was convinced was the best F1 racer there ever was). As two more community members and a classmate arrived, we rolled up our sleeves and prepared to bake some banana bread. We divided ourselves in groups that were responsible for each part of the recipe. Tasks were divided according to how each one could help. Ms. Y, who had difficulty moving, was in charge of mashing the bananas, while the rest of us prepared the dough, mixed the ingredients and managed the oven.
While we waited for the bread to bake in the oven, we all talked a little bit more. Mr. Z and Ms. Y started leafing through the newspapers on the table and would make funny or cheeky comments about the things they found interesting in the papers. Ms. Y was particularly insightful and was able to express her ideas and opinions. At one moment, one member of the staff pointed out Mr. Z hadn’t filled out an online satisfaction questionnaire about Headway, and asked if he could do so. They also asked if I could sit beside him, in case he needed assistance with the computer.
Whereas Mr. Z was articulated and able to express his opinions just a few minutes earlier, I realized he wasn’t being so successful collecting his thoughts in order to answer some short open-ended questions on the computer. As for the multiple choice questions, I had the impression that he answered them without much reflection. Not that he didn’t seem to care, but perhaps having to sustain attention for a somewhat long period of time and to think about his impressions about Headway might have been a little cognitively demanding. That is when I remembered Ms. Alison Mclean’s presentation a few weeks earlier. She spoke of the importance of checking if brain injury drop-in centres fulfill their role in positively affecting TBI survivors’ social outcomes (in this paper, she and her colleagues found support that in most cases they are). This means Headway’s initiative to have it’s own questionnaire is important, but I wonder what would be the best way to the obtain the opinions and reflections of the people who attend the centre.
My impressions are that some people need some support to be better able to reflect on the role of Headway in their lives and the reasons they keep coming back. While I was able to help Mr. Z in that opportunity, I can’t know if this is consistent for other members. I suspect having a brainstorm session with a few people who regularly attend Headway, with someone leading them to elaborate their thoughts would get some detailed and valuable insights on the function of that particular Headway centre and how it could improve.
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