Outstanding-rated Headway Suffolk is set to open eight brain injury rehab hubs across the county in Aldeburgh, Eye, Framlingham, Hadleigh, Haverhill, Leiston, Newmarket and Stowmarket.
The new outreach groups will be suitable for adults living with brain injury or neurological conditions who want to meet with others in a safe and stimulating environment, supported by the charity’s qualified and dedicated staff.
The hubs will include a range of activities designed to help each individual with their rehabilitation needs, as well as providing peace of mind for family carers who can leave their loved ones in safe care while they gain some valuable respite.
Our CEO Helen Fairweather spoke to BBC Radio Suffolk about the new outreach hubs: “We had successful satellite hubs before Covid, which were small groups of 8-10, and they really helped people to progress and we were sad we had to close them because of the pandemic.
“Some of them were based in community hospitals, which was obviously a place we couldn’t go to during lockdown, so now is the right time to reopen them to look at what else we can do to help people.
“We want to prevent people having to travel to us in our main hubs in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds because that’s problematic for people as they can lose their driving licence after a brain injury and can’t get to us so we want to go to them.
“We want to start off by offering an Understanding Brain Injury course in those locations, which will look at what the brain does, what happens when it goes wrong and how to make a recovery.
“After that course we are hoping to open them up as a day hub so we can help them with their rehabilitation and their care and support.
“The most important thing now is for people to come forward if they need our help or would like to find out more about these hubs or know anyone else who might benefit from them, so we’d like to hear from people living with a brain injury, stroke and neurological conditions or family carers who could do with a break themselves whilst we look after their loved ones.
“As soon as we have got 5-6 people in each location we can then take it forward, make sure we have the funding in place and find the venues, but we can’t really do anything until we have people who have contacted us and say they need our help.
“There’s lots of people out there who need our help but one of the things that happened during Covid was that a lot of day centres closed so there’s a gap now in the service and we hope people who used to go to them services contact us.”
Contact us on 01473 712225 or email [email protected].
Sponsorship
Headway Suffolk, which has rehab hubs in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, is seeking sponsorship for the rehab hubs as well as encouraging new referrals to each new hub.
Helen Fairweather, CEO of Headway Suffolk: ““We are financially stable but are always looking for more funding and we are applying to funding trusts and other people to help us with that.”
All enquiries should be made by email to [email protected].
About Headway Suffolk
Headway Suffolk is a registered charity that supports adults living with brain injury, stroke and neurological conditions through an extensive range of rehabilitation, therapy and care services.
In September 2022, it was rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, with Louise Broddle, CQC head of adult social care inspection, saying “Headway Suffolk is clearly an important part of the community and other services can look to it as an example of how to deliver outstanding care and support.”
Helen Fairweather said: “Our hubs are a bespoke service, so we look at what the individual wants to achieve, what the problems are, what they were doing before their injury and then we put together a list of activities that they want to join in. It could be IT, music, drama, swimming, the gym, bowling, anything that will stimulate the person cognitively and physically to stimulate the brain.”