Author Archives: jtorres

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.

Visiting Headway for volunteer work during their art class was a very interesting experience. I wondered if just one visit would be enough to have any meaningful insight into what it means to live with the consequences of a brain injury. When I got there, a member of the staff showed me around and introduced me to the attendees who were there at the moment. Soon I realized that even short first interactions with the people who were there were enough to get some insight into the struggles they may have to face in their daily lives.

One of such interactions was with a man who had a language impairment that made it difficult for him to express himself clearly, but that surely didn’t keep him from welcoming me at the center. While some impairments could easily be linked to head injury, I think other consequences of TBI may not be easily appreciated by unaware observers, as they interfere with inhibition and a sense of what is appropriate to a given social interaction instead of a clearer cognitive deficit such as something related to memory or attention. One example is one attendee who was very playful when shaking hands. I wonder if someone who is not aware of his condition might understand his particular way of greeting others. I also noticed that, even if brain injury was apparent for some of them, others didn’t seem to have had that kind of injury at all, and for most of the time only they must be aware of the occasional cognitive challenges they have to face.

The art class was very suiting for me to be able to talk with the people who decided to participate in it. I had a nice conversation with two of them, and they talked about their families and their hobbies. One of them explained to me that she really liked swimming, and that she would do it more times a week if she found a volunteer to help her at different times. She also spoke of the job she had and the goals she have for themselves in the near future. From that conversation it was possible to have an idea of how they had to accommodate their lives after the injury, and that they have a direction of what they want to do when they experience some improvements.

The art class was also good to see that different attendees asked for different kinds of help, reminding me that after head injury people can have very different impairments. Some needed no help at all creating their Valentines Day card, while others could only give instructions to their volunteers about how they wanted their card. One of them wanted to write something on their card, but was having difficulty with it and asked me to write what he wanted. This suggested difficulties with fine motor coordination or with language.

I was surprised at the amount of details and interactions I had at Headway for this first visit. I had the opportunity to see some of what I only saw in class, such as the variability of impairments people face after TBI, and that it may not even be noticeable to a lay observer. Talking to the people there I was able to better appreciate that TBI is an event that changes a life, but that being motivated and taking their time to adapt, TBI survivors can find their balance again and lead enjoyable lives.