Salisbury brain injury charity "desperate" for face to face return
They've also praised the resilience of the families they support
Last updated 8th Jul 2021
A charity in Salisbury which supports survivors of brain injuries say they're desperate to return to face to face meetings to help their members.
Headway Salisbury and South Wiltshire work with around 50 families with loved ones who have sustained strokes or suffered serious accidents, hypoxia or meningitis.
When the pandemic hit they were forced to do all their work via Zoom, but they say it's would be much more beneficial to the people they help to do it in person again.
Community Engagement Manager Bec Burrow said:
"We know many of our members are desperate to see each other in person again. We are moving forward now and what we are really trying to do is give our group members and our volunteers confidence to get back in person because we can't do what we do without our volunteers and they have got to be happy and comfortable."
The group hope its meetings will resume later this summer but it already has nine volunteers, some of whom have had family members with brain injuries, who have been working with the charity's staff to take small groups out for meet-ups, walks, visits and coffee.
Like many charities, they've lost a lot of money since the pandemic hit as they haven't been able to run fundraising events and lost subscriptions revenue from members.
They say they desperately need support in order to continue running the services they do.
Mrs Burrows added:
"Our emphasis is on reintegrating people back into the community, doing things that they love and having meaningful occupation - that might mean getting back into work again, getting into volunteering or being part of groups that have a shared interest.
Some people who come to us are back on their feet and thriving again with a little bit of support. But others could be with us for years and for them success could be maintaining the status quo because without the right support they could regress. A brain injury is as individual as the person themselves."
You can find out more about Headway's work by going to their website.