See the hidden me – the invisible effects of an Acquired Brain Injury

An Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) can happen to anyone at any time. A road traffic accident, a rugby tackle gone wrong, drug and alcohol misuse, a stroke or an infection can all result in someone’s life being turned upside down. Every 90 seconds, someone is admitted to hospital with a brain injury and 1 in 64 people are currently living with the effects (Source: Headway UK).

The effects of a brain injury can range from the relatively minor, such as temporary concussion through to more severe and complex injuries that can be experienced for years after the injury occurred. Some people may have physical impairments as a result of their injury, for others the injury may effect their personality, mood, hormones, cognitive ability, speech or memory to name a few.

Headway Luton is a charity that support around 200 people with an ABI, and their families in Luton, Houghton Regis and surrounding areas.  Our aim is to help people at any stage of their journey to recovery to become as independent as possible.  We do this by providing a wide range of professional services such as emotional and mental health support, advocacy and referrals to other social and health services.

We also provide activities that focus on improving cognitive and physical skills enabling clients to live independently. These include workshops in art and craft, ICT sessions, physiotherapy, cognitive exercises, yoga, cookery lessons, music and singing, and speech and communication support.

We operate from two centres. Our primary centre is based in Alma Street, Luton with a satellite branch service on Wednesdays in Memorial Hall, Houghton Regis.  As well as providing programmed activities in our two centres we also provide an outreach service via our community support team who visit clients in their homes.

The theme for Action for Brain Injury Week 2022 (16th to 22nd May) is ‘See the hidden me’. The aim of this week is to raise awareness and understanding of the often misunderstood symptoms of a brain injury, and work to alleviate the challenges, and frustrations, survivors face. As three of our clients say:

“When I don’t understand something, people can be quite aggressive. I am not stupid, I just need a bit more time to read and process information.”

“The invisible effects of my brain injury are that I get very tired, it affects my speech, visual perception, concentration, short term memory, processing of information, ability to sequence things and my hands get very shaky.”

“I was always had mental health problems before my brain injury, but the brain injury made it much worse. Coming to Headway helps me with my anxiety as the activities and group of friends I have made helps me focus on other things and have fun.”

During May, follow our social media pages for clients stories, poems and art work on the hidden me theme. We will also be having a stall in The Mall (opposite Lidl) on the 19^th and 20^th May. Please do drop by and speak to staff and clients about brain injury and Headway Luton.

• To find out more about our service and the referrals process, go to our website headwayluton.com
• Call us: 01582 876729
• Email us: enquiries@headwayluton.com
• For further information on the hidden me campaign go to the Headway UK website: https://www.headway.org.uk/