Our aims:

• to provide both practical and emotional support for people who have had an acquired brain injury

• to provide respite for carers

• to be a meeting place where people with brain injury can share experiences

• to provide suitable activities that will enable people to maximise independence

• to be a social outlet where people with brain injury can enjoy themselves and have fun

Brain injury is a long and difficult road. Surviving the initial trauma is only the start. Many of the more subtle neurological disabilities, such as memory loss, communication and organisational skills, lack of insight, loss of motivation, depression and inappropriate behaviour, only become apparent as the survivors and their families try to resume their ‘normal’ lives.

Individuals and family members are often discharged from hospital with very little understanding of the possible effects of brain injury, or in some cases, even the knowledge that they have suffered a brain injury. Therefore people are often ill-prepared to deal with the challenges they face.

Brain injury rehabilitation services throughout Wales are piecemeal and under-resourced and so Headway Cardiff has developed its day services over the last 20 years to try to fill the gap in services.

Our Headway House day centre offers a programme of activities and opens on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Owing to the individual nature of the days and the demand for places, clients are only able to attend one day a week.

Each of the days is run by our staff team who are ably assisted by a number of volunteers, without whom we could not run our service. The role of the volunteer is to facilitate participation in activities and support our clients.

We ask clients to do as much for themselves as possible.
Our aim is to increase independence, not diminish it!

Friday Day Centre

This service is for people with acquired brain injury who meet our overall client criteria. The maximum number of attenders for this day is 30.

This is our longest running and busiest day. Individuals who attend are wide ranging in both age and ability.

The primary benefits for the people who attend this day are:

increased social interaction; peer group support; increase in confidence and self esteem, increased insight, maintenance of cognitive skill and help in modifying inappropriate behaviour.

We offer a wide variety of programmed activities which include computer skills, quizzes, art and craft, yoga, swimming, day trips, speakers and group games

Each Friday we employ a specialist computer tutor, with whom clients are able to work towards achieving CLAIT Levels 1 and 2 or simply improve their knowledge of Word, e-mail and the Web.

The session runs from 10.00 until 4.00, at a cost of £38.00 per session
A light lunch and refreshments are included in this, along with all activities.

Transport to and from Headway House is not included and must be arranged on an individual basis.

Tuesday Day Centre

Until recently Tuesday was a smaller, more structured group, but as a response to increasing demand for our service and a desire to ensure our services as flexible as possible, we are bringing Tuesday in line with a Friday and Monday in terms of numbers,mix of clients and the programme of activities.

We will then offer independent living skills to service users throughout the week rather than just those who attend on a Tuesday.

Again, computer training is available each week, where clients can work towards a CLAIT qualification or simply improve their current skills.

This day is again for people who meet our overall criteria.

The session runs from 10.00 until 4.00, at a cost of £39.00 per session
A light lunch and refreshments are included in this, along with all activities.

Transport to and from Headway House is not included and must be arranged on an individual basis

Wednesday Day Centre

This is our smallest Day Centre based group (maximum 10), who all have high support needs and benefit from more individual attention.

The programme focuses on small group work, such as ball and word games, with the day being well structured and activities limited to short periods to help retain attention and energy levels and to avoid over-tiring.

This day is again for people who meet our overall criteria.

The session runs from 11.00 until 3.00, at a cost of £39.00 per session.
A light lunch and refreshments are included in this, along with all activities.

Transport to and from Headway House is not included and must be arranged on an individual basis.

Monday Day Centre

This day began in March 2007 and has the same number and mix of clients as a Friday, as well as following the same programme and structure.

The session runs from 9.30 until 2.00, at a cost of £39.00 per session.
A light lunch and refreshments are included in this, along with all activities.

Transport to and from Headway House is not included and must be arranged on an individual basis.

Headway House Day Centre Referral process

• Referrals will be accepted from any source as long as they meet our overall criteria as previously outlined.

• A Day Centre Referral Form will need to be completed as fully as possible by the referrer.

• Details of our service will be sent to the referrer and potential attender

• If the referee is considered to meet with our attender criteria, the person will be offered an appointment for assessment within 3 months

•  This process usually takes 1 – 2 hours and is conducted at our office at Rookwood Hospital.  We ask that the potential client is accompanied by the person who knows them best, to allow us to get a good overall picture.

•  Once the appropriate day has been identified, the potential attender will be offered a trial visit.

• If no place is available, the referee will be placed on the waiting list for that day*.

• Once a place becomes available on that day, funding and transport must be arranged and a start date will be given

N.B. The waiting list does not operate in strict chronological order.
We have an extremely limited number of placements available and as such placements will be offered to the individuals we feel will most benefit from our service. We may also take into consideration the existing level of appropriate support or services in place for them.

Headway Cardiff reserves the right to refuse a referral if:

• our service does not meet the person’s needs
• funding is not available
• the person does not agree to attend
• the person does not agree to accept our guidelines on unacceptable behaviour etc.
• our day centre is full, in which case the potential attender will be placed on a waiting list.