Headway Tyneside launched ‘My Brain Star’ to support our members
After a brain injury, it can be hard to tell how far you’ve come. My Brain Star is a tool that makes it easier — showing your progress, step by step, in a way that’s personal to you. And for us at Headway Tyneside, learning about what is important to you helps us shape how we support you.
What is it?
My Brain Star is here to guide you after a brain injury. It’s a way to explore how your brain injury affects different parts of your life and to work out the help and support that will make the most difference. Together with people supporting you, you can use it to see what’s going well, what’s changing, and where you might want to focus next — whether that’s your thinking skills, everyday activities, or physical health. Learn more.
What has Headway Tyneside learned from working with you?
Hannah and Jo are very grateful that our members have been so open to using this new tool. Our conversations have been in-depth and valuable – not just for the person taking part but also to help us understand more about our member group.
“It can be difficult to have an uninterrupted opportunity to talk about the effects and impact of a person’s brain injury in a one-to-one setting, so it was a privilege to have these conversations. The reflections have not only enabled our members to see things differently but given us as staff a deeper insight in the needs of our members.”
As a community-based service, we wanted to gather a wider picture of our members’ lives, that we don’t always see in our weekly group settings. We also wanted to understand if there were any gaps in provision that were seen across our membership, and if we could do anything about this.
My brain star: key themes
My Brain Star conversations focus on these nine areas. You are asked to self-rate using a scale 1-5, thinking about how well you feel you are managing.
This helps you choose areas to focus on, creating personal goals to help you move forward in a way that works for you.
What is important to our members
Everybody’s star is unique to them, however we noticed some similarities in the things our members were sharing.
Social and support networks were rated as an area of strength for many of the people taking part in My Brain Star. We think this is partly due to you being actively engaged in our Headway group. Thank you to all of you for creating a supportive environment for one another!
My thinking skills is an area of importance and something that really affects our members. Thinking skills relates to: memory, attention problem solving and planning. These topics brought up lots of challenges.
We will continue to run our brain injury awareness course and share useful resources to support you in daily life.
“I have started learning tips and tricks for thinking skills through the Headway group and through the brain injury course I went to.”
Personal admin is an area where many people feel they have good support. However, several people raised worries about being scammed. We plan to provide a training session on online safety and scam awareness. Watch this space!
“I do need more support in this area as I do fall for scams. I was recently harassed on the phone by someone before I realised it was a scam.”
Many members rated their physical health as their biggest concern. Fatigue was discussed time and again as a huge barrier. Whilst you want to engage in exercise, you recognise the impact this has on your energy levels. Headway Tyneside continues to offer gentle and supportive fitness options: our weekly walking football and dance class. We also worked with Smile Through Sport to offer gym sessions at a specialist gym.
“Fatigue is a big problem. It impacts on everything else.”
“It’s my fatigue. It is a constant thing in my life and impacts on all the other aspects of my health.”
How I feel explored ‘feeling content’, managing difficult emotions and mental health. Difficult emotions were prevalent in our member group – feelings of anger, grief and struggling with acceptance of the huge life shift that comes after brain injury.
We are so pleased to hear that our Headway groups can help with these difficult feelings. We offer social support and give structure to people’s days.
“On days where I have something on, like Headway, I do feel happy and good about myself.”
“I have things I enjoy, especially Headway groups. This gives me a sense of belonging, it’s nice to be around people who understand and don’t judge.”
Headway Tyneside was really interested in talking to you about ‘how I spend my time’ – some people shared struggling with a lack of joy or purpose. Starting this year, we have been showcasing members’ hobbies and interests at our social group. This has given you a chance to share things you enjoy and hopefully inspire each other to try something new!
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has had these conversations with us and set personal goals. Book your follow up session now.