Carers' Needs

Addressing Carers' Needs

Research findings clearly illustrate that acquired brain injury becomes ‘a family affair’ in that an exceptional burden is usually carried by the injured person’s family members.  In a random survey of Headway group members across the UK, carried out by the present author as part of a larger research (Flanagan,1998, Brit. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 37),  group members were invited to rate in importance what extra help they felt they needed in their caregiving role.

Relationship to the TBI family member
As can be seen from the above graph, relatives rated the availability of specialised day care facilities as being their greatest need, followed by access to someone outside the family to talk to. Of the six carer resources needed, the Head Forward Centre facilities currently make available the top four - and  we hope to tackle the lower two in the near future.

Dismayed by the lack of appropriate Day Centre resources for those with TBI in the Greater Manchester area in 1999 representatives of support groups met to address this issue.  Drawing on their own personal experience of caring for a brain injured relative – and with the aid of voluntary expertise offered by highly qualified professionals in social care and welfare rights – the Greater Manchester Headwayhouse Project Company (GMHHP) was founded in 2001 and renamed the Head Forward Centre in 2007.