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Inside this issue:

Coffee Mornings/Hat Making 2

Falls: How to Prevent Them 3

Clinical Commissioning 4

Action for Brain Injury Week 4

Windermere Day Trip 5

Meet the Committee 5

Help/Carers Resource 6

Acquired Brain Injury Forum 7

Local Information 8

Welcome!

July/August 2014

improving life after brain injury

Headway Bradford Newsletter

07856 076 866

Headway_bradford @hotmail.co.uk

Headway Bradford

CPB 3

c/o Kirkgate Centre

39A Kirkgate

Shipley

West Yorkshire

BD18 3EH

0808 800 2244

National Free Helpline

July/August 2014

Welcome to the July/

August newsletter!

As promised in our May/June newsletter, we are including (below) a photo of the presentation of £1000 to Headway Bradford by Yorkshire Building Society at the beginning of our Annual General Meeting on 11 March.

Our photo shows, left to right: Steve Butlin Vice Chair, Iris Laycock Committee Member, , Cerys Beeby (formerly Long) Headway Area Co-ordinator Yorkshire & Humber Region, , John Watmough Chair , Han-nah Rebecchi Yorkshire Building Society.

We would also like to inform you that we are using a new system for an-

swering telephone calls made to Headway Brad-ford. If and when you ring us on 07856 076 866, you will hear a rec-orded message asking you to leave your name, telephone number and a short message saying that we will ring you back. The phone will be checked daily for messag-es and we aim to answer all telephone enquiries within two working days.

Sue Puca, therapist on the Bradford Community Head Injury Team who came to our May meeting at the Kirkgate Centre in Shipley, has asked us to pass on her thanks to those of you who filled in one of her questionnaires. She really appreciated your help with her research.

In this newsletter you will find photos from our hat-making session in May and of our stand at Brad-ford Royal Infirmary dur-ing Action for Brain Injury Week together with other articles we hope you will find of interest.

Tuesday 8 July 2014 - Social/Support Meeting 10.30am - 12pm at the Kirkgate Centre, Ship-

ley

Help to make a simple but effective Headway Bradford banner for use at our fundraising events. There will be time for a cuppa and a chat as well and we will have our usu-al raffle. We look for-ward to seeing you there.

Tuesday 12 August 2014 - Social/Support Meeting. 10.30am - 12pm at the Kirkgate

Centre, Shipley

A time just to chat and share experiences with perhaps a quiz thrown in - with plenty of tea, cof-fee and biscuits availa-ble! Hope to see you there.

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Coffee Mornings at St. George’s Hall, Bradford

Hat Making Fun in May!

Some wonderful head gear emerged from our May Social/Support Meeting, as you can see from the photos! Well done, everyone, for having a go and being prepared to have your photo taken wearing our wonderful creations!

We are continuing to hold month-ly Coffee Mornings on a drop in basis at the café in St George’s Hall, Bridge Street, Bradford, BD1 1JT. As a rule, these are held on the third Thursday of the month but as St George’s Hall are unable to accommodate us on the third Thursday of July, the July Coffee Morning will be held on the fourth Thursday of the month, making the dates for the next two:-

Thursday 24 July 2014

10.30am - 12pm

Thursday 21 August 2014

10.30am - 12pm

Just a reminder that to find our group, please turn left after going through the door into the café. The refreshments are reasonably priced, and we have been pleased to meet new people in an informal way at the four we

have held so far, and hope to meet many more. The Coffee Mornings are open to anyone with a brain injury, family mem-bers, partners or carers and pro-vide an opportunity to meet new people and share experiences and support. You can just turn up or contact us for more infor-mation. Our contact details are on the front page of this newslet-ter.

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July/August 2014

Falls: How to Prevent Them

You may be at risk of

falling if:-

You have fallen before

You are afraid of falling

You have problems with your

eyesight or hearing

You take four or more medi-

cations a day

Your medication has been changed in the last two

weeks

You have problems with your

balance or dizziness

You have difficulty with walk-ing or rising from a low bed

or chair

You suffer from poor memory

or depression

You suffer from incontinence

You wear the wrong footwear

or have feet problems

You home is cluttered, has loose fitting carpets or rugs

and is poorly lit.

At our Social/Support meeting on Tuesday 10 June, Sharon Bond, who comes from the Dis-trict Nursing background, came to speak to us. She is now the Falls Co-ordinator for the Brad-ford District Care Trust, and explained to us that her job had been created two years ago.

Because it had become clear there were a lot of falls occur-ring, resulting in people needing hospital treatment, it had been decided to invest in having someone to work on informing people how falls could be pre-vented. She does lots of work with BDCT Social Services and the A&E Departments of hospi-tals. She also runs a multi-disciplinary Falls Link Group and Stephen Pugh runs an Ex-ercise Class for stability and balance.

For more information and leaf-lets about Falls Prevention, you can contact Sharon Bond di-rectly either by telephone on 01274 322330 or by email sha-

ron.bond@bdct.nhs.uk.

The following is a brief guide from Sharon about who is at risk of falling and how to pre-vent falls where possible:

Advice for falls preven-

tion :-

Contact your GP or Nurse if you think you are at risk - the cause may be treatable

Consider purchasing a per-

sonal alarm

Wear the correct glasses, keep them clean and have regular eye tests

Keep hearing devices well maintained and change the

batteries regularly

Have annual medication re-views. - mention any side ef-fects of your medication

Inform the GP of medicines

you buy over the counter

Avoid excessive alcohol - this can cause falls

Stay fit and active - Garden-ing, housework, walking, climbing stairs and exercise groups all help to increase

mobility, strength, balance

Ensure footwear is well fitted and toenails cut regularly

Eat healthy foods rich in cal-cium + Vitamin D for bone health - sunshine is the best

source of Vitamin D

Eat five portions of fruit and vegetables each day

Drink at least eight cups of

fluid a day

Keep your house well lit, espe-cially stairs

Check your home for trip haz-

ards such as rugs and wires

Consider handrails or special-ized equipment

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Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)

A key priority for the CCGs is meaningful engagement with their partners, patients and the local population. They are keen to hear your views and ideas about any aspect of their work. More information about the CCGs and details of how you can become involved is given on their websites:-

www.bradforddistrictsccg.n

hs.uk

www.airedalewharfedalecrav

enccg.nhs.uk

Clinical Commissioning Groups are the organisations responsible for healthcare ser-vices.

The Bradford Districts CCG is made up of 41 member GP practices and the Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven CCG is made up of 17 GP practices.

Information Stand at Bradford Royal Infirmary During Action for

Brain Injury Week 12—18 May 2014

70% believe their long-term support needs will increase if they do not have access to the support they need now

70% are concerned about ability to cope financially due to welfare benefit reform

Regarding charities struggling to cope with reduced support from local authorities, the sur-vey shows that:-

85% of local Headway groups concerned about long-term survival

89% forced to use charity re-serves and additional charity funds to maintain vital ser-vices.

These results together with a full report can be found on the national Headway website www.headway.org.uk. On the Home Page click on the Ac-tion for Brain Injury Week heading to the right of ’Welcome to Headway’.

If you would like to discuss any part of the research, please contact

Richard Morris on in-fo.officer@headway.org.uk

or

Andrew Taylor on

website@headway.org.uk.

Headway UK conducted a survey to help them under-stand how welfare benefit re-forms and changes to local authority funding is affecting people with a brain injury. There was a good response with 504 brain injury survivors and 92 Headway groups and branches taking part. Head-way would like to thank every-one who took the time to par-ticipate.

The results of the survey, which were published during Action for Brain Injury Week show that:-

Almost half (48%) of people living with a brain injury have lost access to vital rehabili-tation and support services as a result of cuts to local au-thority budgets and welfare benefit reform

Our stand was put up on the Monday morning just inside the main entrance of BRI on the main corridor and remained there until Friday evening.

It was manned during most visit-ing times on those days, and gave us the opportunity of speaking to both visitors and members of staff.

Our Vice Chair, Steve Butlin, is a real asset to us on occasions like this - he is very good at drawing people’s attention to Headway Bradford. Thank you to all those, who along with Ste-ve, helped to man the stand that week.

Results of Headway ABI Week Survey

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Day Trip to Winderemere, Tuesday 17 June 2014

The forecast for a warm, dry, cloudy day with sunny spells turned out to be accurate, for which the 39 Headway Bradford members and friends who went on the trip to Windermere were very thankful indeed.

After a brief stop at Settle, we reached Ambleside at around 12

noon where our coach driver took a group photo of us by the lake.

Most people then stayed at Am-bleside to catch the 1pm ferry for a refreshing ride across the lake to Bowness, the group booking giving us a reduction in the price of the fare. The rest stayed on

the coach to be taken by road.

It was a very pleasant, relaxing day with beautiful scenery both at Windermere and on the jour-ney there and back. Our thanks go to everyone who helped to make the day successful and to all those who came.

Meet The Committee!

If you have visited the Headway Bradford website, you will proba-bly have seen the profiles of committee members on the ‘About Us’ page.

As not everyone will have seen these, we will be featuring one committee member in each newsletter for a while. We begin with John Wat-mough, who is our Chair and Treasurer.

John writes:-I worked at Grattan, the mail order company, for 34 years and 9 months where I was finance manager for most of the time. I was then made redun-dant in August 2004. After this I was elected to Bradford Council to represent the Windhill and Wrose Ward between 2007 and 2011. As well as helping my constituents I also helped the people of Headway Bradford by improving things for them when I was on the Health Committee.

I am treasurer of Wrose Method-ist Church and my wife and I help with a Luncheon Club and Tea Dance at the church every

Wednesday. We were recently asked by Halle in Shipley to start a monthly club for people who have Alzheimers Disease and are lonely at Wrose Methodist Church and this has been very successful.

Also I am a governor at Low Ash Primary School and take an ac-tive part in the school.

Recently (in the year 2013) I was elected Treasurer and Chair of Headway Bradford and look for-ward to many happy years help-ing people whose lives have been affected by brain injury.

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Can You Help?

Headway Bradford is in the process of choosing books re-lated to brain injury in order to create a small lending library. We are using the grant given to us by the Yorkshire Building Society for this and plan to buy some stands for the books to help with storing them and keeping them in good condi-tion. The committee would like to ask if there is anyone amongst our members who could help by taking on the

job of running the library.

The books would be kept at the

Kirkgate Centre and a system would need to be set up to keep a record and when and by whom books are borrowed and to ensure they are returned.

If you are interested in helping Headway Bradford in this way or would like to know more about what would be involved, please get in touch with us by phone or email (details on the front page of this newsletter). It would be greatly appreciated if one or two people could help

us in this way. Thank you.

Urgently Needed!

Have you any unwanted,

unused items/gifts?

Could you donate them to Headway Bradford to use for

fundraising?

We urgently need items that can be us as tombola prizes on our stall at Saltaire Festival in September 2014. If you have anything you can donate, please either bring them along to the July, August or Septem-ber Social/Support meetings

(second Tuesday of the month at the Kirkgate Centre, Shipley 10.30am - 12pm) or get in touch with us by phone or email so we can arrange to collect them.

Headway Bradford Events for Carers in September 2014

Following feedback from the carers in the group, we are going to hold two carers events in September. The content of the sessions will be similar; we are holding two to allow people to attend at dif-ferent times of the day.

There will be an evening event on Monday 22 Septem-ber 2014, 6pm - 8pm at a ven-ue in Bradford, this will be confirmed in the September newsletter.

There will be a daytime event on Monday 29 September 2014, 1pm - 3pm at Carers Resource, 15 Park View Court, St Paul’s Road, Ship-ley, BD18 3DZ (opposite the back of Shipley Swimming Pool, the entrance gates are on Iver Way, off St Paul’s Road).

Light refreshments will be available at both events and there will be opportunity for you to meet other people sup-porting someone who has had a brain injury. You are wel-come to bring a friend or rela-tive along with you if you would like to do so.

Sarah Baker from the Carers Resource Centre will join us for both events and will be able to give a basic overview of benefits and finances, ex-plore emergency plans and carers assessments and pro-vide information on resources available for carers in the Bradford area.

Laura Willetts, Occupational Therapist in the Community Head Injury Rehabilitation Team based at St Luke’s Hos-pital will be at both events and Pam Drake, committee mem-ber of Headway Bradford will also be there to meet you.

To find out more and/or let us know you are coming to either session, please contact Sarah Baker on; 01274 449 660 or Headway Bradford on; 07856 076 866, or you can email us at: head-way_bradford@hotmail.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you there.

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Yorkshire Aquired Brain Injury Forum (YABIF), Thursday 17 July

YABIF have informed us that this general meeting will address Concussion and Brain Injury in Sport. This is a very current topic both here and in the US, with medical research continuing and a number of sports now waking up to the impact of con-cussion, repeated head injury and brain injury.

The speakers will be:

Dr Anna-Louise MacKinnon, Medical Adviser to the Profes-sional Jockeys Association

and the Injured Jockeys Fund

David Jackson - Former Pro-

fessional Rugby Player

They invite representatives of all interested sports to attend as well as those who have sus-tained a brain injury, their fami-lies/carers and professionals/practitioners involved in brain injury.

Tea and coffee will be provided and food is available to purchase on site.

Entry badges should be collect-ed from the turnstiles at the en-trance on arrival.

There will be racing on in the evening - the first race is 5.55pm and the last race 9.10pm.

There will be an opportunity for group discussion and network-ing.

The timetable for the event is

as follows:-

5.00pm : Registration and re-

freshments

5.30pm :Meeting starts

7.30pm: Meeting ends and re-

freshments

Venue: Doncaster Race-course, 4

th Floor, Lazarus

Stand, Leger Way, Doncaster, DN 2 6BB (Use County En-

trance, lift to the 4th

floor)

For more details or to book a place, please contact Clare Bow-ler either by email at clarebowler@hlwkeeblehawson.co.uk or by phone on 0114 290 6230.

SAVE THE DATE!

South Yorkshire Acquired

Brain Injury Forum (SYABIF)

Giving a voice to Acquired Brain Injury in South York-

shire

LAUNCH DAY

Wednesday 22 October 12pm - 4pm, Venue: The Source, 300 Meadowhall Way, Shef-

field, S9 1E

You are invited to attend the launch event of a new Brain In-jury Forum for the South York-shire Region. The purpose of the day will be to discuss the challenges faced by those af-fected by brain injury and to help identify topics for future educa-tion and networking sessions. Whether you are a professional, carer or survivor, your views would be very welcome.

Booking details are not yet avail-able, but they will be included in a future newsletter. Alternative-ly, if you would like Headway Bradford to let you know as soon as booking details become available, please give us your contact details by phone or email (details on the front page of this newsletter), and we will then get in touch with you when we have the information.

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Community Advice Network

The new Community Advice Network has a website, www.bradfordcan.org.uk makes it easy to find face-to-face services provided by local advice charities in communities across Bradford, Shipley and Keighley. It gives contact de-tails as to where free, confiden-tial, impartial, independent and reliable advice and information can be obtained. The ten icons on the Home Page will take you to contacts for:-

Benefits Consumer

Immigration

Family Housing

Debt

Employment Education

Health & Community

Other Local Help

Community Advice Network can also be contacted by phone on 08442 451282. The phone will be answered by lo-cal people who have been trained in advice work skills on the Employment Opportunities Fund. Calls cost 5p per minute from a landline but more from a mobile phone. Mobile callers will be given an 0300 number to ring. This also costs 5p per minute. Advisers can call you back on request.

Age UK - Handyperson Service

This service has recently been expanded to allow people of any age to use it. The scheme provides a reliable way of get-ting DIY jobs done and is de-signed to tackle a variety of minor repairs and adaptations and deal with home safety and security issues, mobility issues and general property mainte-nance.

It can also undertake minor electrical work such as fitting

safety devices, eg smoke alarms, changing plugs on ap-pliances and replacing light bulbs.

If you wish to access the ser-vice, please ring Age UK’s Maintenance Team on 01274 728259, who will take your de-tails and give a time and date for smaller jobs or arrange to make an assessment visit for bigger jobs.

The labour charge is £25 for

the first hour. After that the charge is £20 per hour, priced as per quarter hour, ie £5 for 15 minutes, £10 for 30 minutes, £15 for 45 minutes. The service is a booked ser-vice, which means it will de-pend on how booked up the diary is as to how long you would have to wait for your work to be done.

URBAN FESTIVAL in July 2014:

Friday 11th (5pm - 9pm) - Saturday 12th (12pm - 10.15pm)

See top urban artists perform some breathtaking moves and develop your own in special workshops.

Saturday 19 July 1pm-4pm

BIG CITY PLAY DAY: City Park becomes a spectacular large playground for children and young people.

Enjoy an exciting day of free play activities including a climbing tower, den building, DJing workshops, arts and crafts, sports games, face painting, scrap and loose parts play and much more!

Wednesdays 30 July - 27 Au-

gust 11am - 3.30pm

FILM AND FUN WEDNES-DAYS: Fantastic films on the Big Screen (11am) followed by hours of fun in the sun!

30 July - Monsters University (U) plus creative crafting and active sports.

6 August - TURBO (U) plus turbo-charged street theatre.

13 August - Cloudy with Chance of Meatballs (U) plus wacky food experiments and cloudy activities

20 August - How to Train Your Dragon (PG) plus creative crafting and active sports.

27 August - Despicable Me 2 (U) plus creative crafting and active sports.

Enjoy City Library Rhyme time (10am), further activities (2pm).

For more information about these events, visit www.bradford.gov.uk/events.

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Heading 2

improving life after brain injury

Heading 2

Bradford

About Headway Bradford

Headway Bradford is a local branch of Headway UK and is run by a small committee of volunteers who have either had an injury themselves or are a family member or carer. We also have legal and health care professionals who volunteer. Our aim is to provide support to help rebuild lives after brain injury.

Headway—the brain injury association is a Registered Charity No 1025852 and a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No. 2346893.

Our national free telephone Helpline number is:

0808 800 2244 Open Monday—Friday 9am—5pm

(charges from mobiles may vary)

Headway Bradford Diary

Tuesday 8th July 2014

Social Support Meeting (Making a Banner)

At the Kirkgate Centre, Shipley 10.30am - 12pm

Thursday 24th July 2014

Coffee Morning

St George’s Hall café, Bridge Street, Bradford, BD1 1JT, 10.30am - 12pm

Tuesday 12th August 2014

Social Support Meeting (Time to chat and share experiences)

At the Kirkgate Centre, Shipley 10.30am - 12pm

Thursday 21st August 2014

Coffee Morning

St George’s Hall café, Bridge Street, Bradford, BD1 1JT, 10.30am - 12pm