Lyons Davidson’s Head Injury team were at the Headway Way Ahead Weekend 2016 on Saturday, 2 July. The conference was held at Yarnfield Park Training and Conference Centre, Staffordshire; it was well attended by members from Headway groups and branches all around the country, people with acquired brain injuries and their carers, along with family members who have been affected by brain injury. The attendees come together at the Way Ahead Weekend once a year to network, share experiences and take advantage of the full agenda of talks and workshops on the important issues relevant to brain injury.
This year, there was a range of excellent speakers, including Frank Chege, who is Patient Liaison Nurse, London’s Air Ambulance and Andy Tyerman, Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist based at Aylesbury Community Head Injury Service. He discussed examples of delayed referrals to community brain injury services and the impact this has on an individual and their family. Chris Bath, Chief Executive of National Appropriate Adult Network, then spoke about the organisation and the support they provide.
There was a vast array of workshops on safeguarding, relationships after brain injury, the importance of nutrition, deputyship, Personal Health Budgets and many more, along with a selection of other activities such as a relaxation classes, Nordic walking, neuro-hypnotherapy, complimentary therapy and art therapy.
The daytime activities were followed by an evening of fun and entertainment, and the weekend was concluded by the AGM on Sunday morning.
Principal Associate Laura Merry was accompanied by Sophie Miller and Heather Kearton-Gee to the conference. Together they ran the Lyons Davidson stand, which was a great opportunity to speak to some very inspiring Headway members and hear about their experience of brain injury.
On the stand, the Lyons Davidson stress brains were popular again this year. The special addition to this year was brain injury inspired Rubik’s cube, designed by the Head Injury team. The cube has a different issue or difficulty that a person with a brain injury may experience on each square. The team had 10 cubes to raffle at the conference; the ten lucky winners were Bernard McKenna, Ed Amoll, Pat Nelthorpe, Tom Ashburn, Margaret Cliffe, Mark Kirkwood, Sam Booth, Sue Cope, Kathryn Prewett and Arthur Moore.
The Head Injury team had a fantastic day and look forward to the next conference.
For more information about the Way Ahead Weekend 2016 or any of the issues raised in this article or about head injury in general, please contact Laura Merry by emailing [email protected] or calling 0117 904 5718.
