The Headway Surrey centre is based in Stoughton in Guildford. Working with adults who have a brain injury from such things as a stroke, road traffic incident, sports injury, work injury, trips, falls, flying debris, encephalitis, meningitis, aneurysm, turmor, hypoxia, combat, assault, domestic violence and many more issues. We are an independent charity covering the whole of Surrey and working with the Surrey hospitals, adult social care, psychologists, OTs, physiotherapists etc.
We support the whole family. When someone has a brain injury, they often look the same, but are not the same. The whole family has to re-adjust to a new normal. It is often traumatic and difficult for families.
We offer a whole range of services that people can dip in and out of. A helping, counselling, 1:1 sessions, group support sessions, social sessions, understanding brain injury courses, family and carers survival toolkit courses, drop ins, obtaining a brain injury ID Card and all manner of support with forms and general life. Oh and art, tai chi, seated boccia, guest speakers, creative writing. We are a small but very friendly and caring charity with 9 members of staff (5 part time) and a great bunch of volunteers.
The NHS offers a great acute service and a few weeks support once the patient is sent home, but then they are left on their own. The best and fastest recovery is in the 2 years following the brain injury, thereafter it slows down, but will continue for years afterwards. We cannot help everyone, but those we do, we try to help return to work, volunteering or study. We help them build a meaningful life, whatever that might look like. We offer ongoing support to improve their cognition and executive skills to live life to the best that they can and to be independent. We help them to re-learn lost skills, improve memory, information processing, judgement, build back social skills and manage behaviour and emotional issues. We offer our services online and also in person at our centre in Guildford.
Friendly, caring and patient
Every person seeking our support is unique. If it's variety you would like, we are the place. You will learn so many different skills that can be used on yourself, your friends, family and at work. Brain injury is a hidden disability and with the right support we make things different. 1 in 3 people in the UK will experience a brain injury during their lifetime. It could be any of us at any time.
You will hear laughter during the centre days and fun. You will see people learning and you can support them. We have great feedback that all of our staff and volunteers are friendly and supportive. So if this is you and you want to make a difference, then do speak to Headway Surrey.
