Author Archives: jspoor

This visit, I had the pleasure of meeting many new members.  When Brandon and I arrived, everyone was sitting in the kitchen waiting for lunch.  One of the staff member’s had made his specialty, baked pasta, and was not letting anyone help, which gave us time to talk with everyone.  Topics of conversation included the trip Chelsea* had just returned from, Aubrey’s* younger sister and discussing potential attractions at Granville Island that day.

After lunch, Jace* and Aubrey helped me hone my pool abilities.  When I say I’m not very good, I’m not being modest! I ended up winning the game only because Jace insisted that I get a Mulligan for each shot I spectacularly missed and helped me to adjust my technique.  Dakota mentioned in his first post how he had expected to assume the role of “helper” while at Headway but found the reverse. I could relate to this comment while hopelessly attempting to hit the cue ball into the ball I was aiming for, then watching my opponent effortlessly make each shot.  I greatly appreciated Jace’s and Aubrey’s patience.

Once at Granville Island, we enjoyed live music but sadly, there were no sea lions.  This week, Mack*, who uses a wheelchair, joined us for the excursion.  Having him with us really highlighted for me how inaccessible the Island and the surrounding areas are for wheelchairs.  This observation builds on what our guest speaker discussed; she had pointed out how Headway’s location can pose a challenge from cognitive standpoint in addition to being isolated.  On this walk, the terrain reminded me of the wheelchair obstacle course at ICORD; not all the curb ramps went flush to the ground or lined up with crosswalks, there were train tracks, uneven pavement, construction and even an open manhole. Mack seemed to greatly enjoy the outing and it is unfortunate that this isn’t something he would be able to do on his own.  While Vancouver has policies pertaining to pedestrian accessibility, not all of the recommendations are in place there.

I stayed for an extra hour to participate in music therapy.  After my brief exposure to it during my first visit and hearing Norika cover it in her facilitation, I was really interested to see one of these sessions firsthand.  The therapy student had brought many instruments, including drums, hand chimes and a qchord.

Hand Chimes (via wikipedia)

Qchord (via Flicker)
The video below (start at 1:00) gives you an idea of how it sounds and how it works

Shane* enthusiastically played whatever was within his reach and kept calling for people to hula dance to his beat, especially the only male staff member!  In addition to boosting mood, this therapy has been credited with helping to focus attention and increase engagement in treatment (Magee et al., 2011).  Interestingly, when it came to the qchord and the hand chimes, Shane was so excited to be making noise that he couldn’t stop long enough to learn the piece.  I wondered if he would have been able to more fully participate in the planned activity had the instruments been less exciting!

*Name has been changed

When I arrived at Headway, Maxim* was preparing lunch, Aalbert* was chatting with him and Shane* was crocheting a hat for himself. This relaxed, homey atmosphere was a big departure from my past volunteer experiences where therapists from various disciplines run the programs and therapy is the primary focus. This facility’s approach is very interesting; while members practice and strengthen their skills, they are in charge of what they do and rather than having therapists oversee the progress, they assist and correct each other.

Prior to walking club, I had an hour to meet and talk with the members. Something that surprised me was how welcoming the members were towards me, complete stranger up until I introduced myself. For my facilitation, I read several papers, including Phelan et al. (2011), which discussed the stigma individuals can experience due to their injury, so I guess I expected them to be cautious when meeting strangers. Aalbert, for example, was very chatty, asking me everything from what I am studying, to movies that I like, to how I got there that day. On the walk, I had the pleasure of talking with Maxim and Adrianna*. That was my first time to Granville Island, so both members showed me the highlights. Adrianna and I also got to talking about travelling. I am going to Europe in May, and as a seasoned traveler, Adrianna shared her travelling tips and described her favourite places in the regions I’ll be visiting.

Granville Island Highlights According to the Walking Club
A) On the pier, I was warned about eating outside because the birds are ruthless!
B) The market has some of their favourite sweets.
the location where bands play live music in the summer and the marina where a family of three sea lion sometimes sunbathe
(image via wikipedia)

In this course, we have discussed a wide range of symptoms that can result for TBI and in my short two-hour visit I did notice a few of these being displayed by the members. I would hesitantly classify them under attention, language, memory and difficulty multitasking. With my background in speech sciences, I noticed a wide variety of language abilities in the members. Several members had slowed speech, although their intonation was intact. Maxim showed some difficulty with word retrieval; depending on the topic of conversation, he would pause midsentence and be silent until he remembered the word or start on a new topic. Adrianna seemed to have an impaired ability to detect sarcasm, although it should be noted that even people without injury could have difficulties with this. Finally, while Shane was extremely energetic and animated while he spoke, he was hard to understand. Without knowing what his native language is and his fluency in English prior to his injury, it is hard to know if he is speaking a combination of the two languages or had some other impairment.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet these members. In school and in the literature, there is a tendency to get focused on what can go wrong, with far less attention to what has remained unchanged and how these symptoms affect a survivor’s everyday life. The interactions also emphasized how each injury is unique, that an individual’s symptoms can vary across situations and that their symptoms do not overshadow the person that they are.

*Name had been changed.