Living with Brain Injury - Images for Awareness

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W I T H

BRAIN INJURY IMAGES FOR AWARENESS

HARBOUR GROUP 2011


Contents

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Reflections on the Harbour Group Process

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#1 Living with a Brain Injury

5

#2 Do You See What I See?

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#3 Ireland has 13,000 Brain Injuries

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#4 The Empathiser

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#5 The Brain Trauma Workout

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#6 Size Matters

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Reflections on the Harbour Group Process The illustrations and thoughts depicted in this e‐book were created by the Headway peer support “Harbour Group” in Summer 2011. This group exists to provide an opportunity for people with brain injury to meet, exchange stories and offer each other personal support, facilitated by staff from Headway. The individuals of the Harbour Group have shared their life experiences with each other over a period of just eight weeks. In that time, they have come to support one another in the joint understanding and gentle acknowledgment of the challenges of having to live with the unexpected ‐ an Acquired Brain Injury. There was an exceptional amount of talent and creativity in the group; and a passion and motivation to improve services for people with Brain Injury. The openness and insight of the group members inspired a decision to share with others the experience of living with brain injury. So they set out to make a goal of raising awareness of what it feels like to have one. During the hours spent sharing, caring and supporting each other, humour came to be the fundamental element in helping group members talk about their challenges and learn from one another. They put themselves and their experiences into these pictures, while at the same time emphasising the funny side of living with a brain injury. Together, they have created a collection of art pieces that show the challenges they have experienced. We hope you enjoy them. Marie McGrath Group facilitator Headway Harbour Group 2011

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Let us tell you a little about the people in our group, they are empathetic, creative, compassionate and outgoing. They bonded together over chocolate, indecent talk, high heels, coffee and laughter....

#1 Living with Brain Injury Living with a brain injury involves coping with extra issues that might not be visible to the casual outsider. For this reason, it is ofted called the “invisible disability”

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WITH A BRAIN INJURY PART ONE: RELATIONSHIPS

. .. . ... .. .. MEMORY BAGGAGE

AVERAGE BAGGAGE

LANGUAGE JUST BAGGAGE BAGGAGE PROCESSING NORMAL BAGGAGE BAGGAGE FATIGUE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE BAGGAGE


The Harbour Group 2011 members are:

Alan, Patrick, Clare, Teresa, Tom, Helen, Martin, Peter, Seamus, Alan, Rachel, Bernard, Ann and Barbara.

#2 Do You See What I See? Visual difficulties following brain injury can arise as the brain struggles to piece together the visual information received by the eyes.

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DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE ?

NORMAL

SIGHT PERCEPTION

ALTERED

SIGHT PERCEPTION


#3 Ireland Has Approximately 13,00 Brain Injuries Each Year The full extent of the problem caused by brain injury in Ireland is not fully known but based on European averages, there could be over 30,000 people dealing with disability following brain injury.

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I R E L A N D

H A S

APPROXIMATELY

13,000 HEAD INJURIES EACH YEAR.


#4 The Empathiser Acquired Brain Injury is often not well understood, even by healthcare professionals.

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Introducing

TH E

VIRTUAL BRAIN INJURY SYMPTOMS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

INSTRUCTIONS

INSERT HEAD IN TRAY & TURN HANDLE WITH LEFT HA ND AT LEAST 3 TI MES. PATENT PENDING

For All Health Professionals encountering brain injury. WE CAN’T DO THIS YET, BUT WE CAN PROVIDE INFORMATION FOR BRAIN INJURY.


#5 The Brain Trauma Workout Sometimes it can feel like a balancing act, coping with the consequences caused by a brain injury.

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#6 Size Matters Fatigue and a limited capacity to deal with situations that many people take for granted is a common difficulty following a brain injury.

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HARBOUR GROUP 2011


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