Newsletter September 7
th
In this issue: • Radio Update • Groups & Course • Staff - Profile Georgia • Carers & Family update • Word game • Volunteer update • Coffee or Tea • Quick Puzzle • Art Attack • Discussion corner • Fundraising • Covid update • Recipe
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2020,7th Edition
Important contact info. Headway SELNWK contacts Community Organiser: 07817 951055 Main Office 020 30581013 Headway UK helpline@headway.org.uk 0808 800 2244 Health service emergency Dial 111 or email 111.nhs.uk Samaritans 116 123
Introduction…We hope you are enjoying the newsletter. It is Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) week on 28th Sep - 4th Oct. The theme this year is memory loss - have a look inside this issue to test your memory. October is Black History Month the theme is “Our Heritage: Celebration and Achievements so we are celebrating the diversity of our membership in the next issue and on social media. Take part! Contact us at takepart@headwayselnwk.co.uk Remember the blue boxes include suggestions for you to get involved. If you do not want to receive the newsletter, please email triciareilly@headwayselnwk.co.uk or tell your Key Worker NEW! Watch out for this symbol in this edition – our Anorak Alert! Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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Radio Update The radio show runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9.00 – 3.00 p.m. However Liam our main Producer/Presenter is having a well-earned rest the week of the 07th September so we are off air that week. We will be back to normal on the Monday 14th September 2020. Karl and Tricia are working behind the scenes in readiness to co-produce and co-present with our members and other Headway groups throughout the country – The best things come to those who wait – in anticipation! We are looking for more members to get involved in this amazing opportunity. Have you ever wanted to be a DJ? Now is your chance! Call Tricia now on 07817 941055 or email her at triciareilly@headwayselnwk.co.uk . Watch this space!
Update on Group Activities If you are not already aware it’s a very exciting time at Headway SELNWK as we are moving into our second month of delivering online zoom groups. Our members are connecting with us as a group online – even those that do not have access to online technology are getting involved by phone. The following groups are now active: • Monday – o Quiz group 11-12 noon o Google Box film & TV Group 3 - 4p.m. o Newsletter Planning Group 4 – 5 p.m. • Wednesday o Audio Book Club 11 – 12 p.m. o Quiz group 2 – 3 p.m. o Peer Support Planning Group 3 – 4 p.m.
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
Page | 3 • Thursday o Fantasy Football League 2 - 3 p.m. • Friday o Mindfulness & Yoga 10.30 – 12 p.m. In this month’s edition we are taking a closer look at the Audio Book Club and The Fantasy Football League below: The Headway SELNWK Audio Book Club The Headway SELNWK Audio Book club was created to be inclusive for all our members. It can help develop listening and communication skills by listening to the audio books selected and discussing our thoughts of them with one another. This club also caters to those who are visually impaired. The outline for the club is to present a short audio story and pause the story at intervals to share thoughts and observations. We may also provide the links to the books prior to the session for members to access the story beforehand. The Headway SELNWK Audio Book Club is scheduled every Wednesday at 11a.m for one hour. An email will be sent out beforehand with the zoom call invite. (Sue London) The Headway SELNWK Fantasy Football League
Anorak Alert!!!
I am delighted to report that Headway SELNWK have set up a Fantasy Football Team and have entered a league. This is the first time we have done this and we have 4 of our members who are budding football managers and keen to test their football knowledge. We are also 'over Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
Page | 4 the moon' (football parlance ) to have Temi and Jane supporting. Both have extensive football knowledge (or so they tell me!) so are well placed to be involved. How does Fantasy Football work? Fantasy football is a game that casts you in the role of a Fantasy Football Manager, given the task to pick a squad of real-life players who score points for your team based on their real-life performances in their matches. How do you play Fantasy Football? To play Fantasy Football you have to pick a team of 11 players + substitutes, which equates to a squad of 15 real-life players, that will represent your team. Over the season they will score you points in each game week, which will add and subtract to a total that will be compared to other teams in the league you are competing in. Fantasy Football Budget To begin, you will be provided with a budget which you spend on your team or squad. If you are new to Fantasy Football, this budget may well seem generous but once you take a look at the player list and start selecting, it’s a good bet that it will start getting eaten up pretty quickly! Typically the most expensive players will be the forwards. Fantasy Football Transfers In addition to your initial team or squad, you will also have a transfer allocation. In basic terms this is the number of changes you can make to your line-up over the season. Typically, you get one FREE transfer per game week or two FREE transfers if you make no changes for two weeks. However, if you don't use your FREE transfers by the second game week, you lose them and back to one allocated FREE transfer in the next game week. Scoring points Points are gained by virtue of how your Fantasy Players perform in their actual games and for the teams they play for in real life. Points will be scored on:
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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the goals scored the player who assists that goal the clean sheets kept plus other opportunities for gaining extra points, such as Triple Captain, Bench Boost, Wild Card etc. • If one of your players makes it into the 'Dream Team' that week, then there are also extra points to be gained. So ‘it’s all to play for’ (more football parlance!) Summary It can all sound very confusing to begin with but once you get into the swing of it, it starts to fall into place. It can be very strategic, requires current football knowledge, lots of discussion, good communication, excellent teamwork, negotiation and compromise, making judgments and decision making amongst other things, to try and get the best out of your team. All will become clearer when you join us for the first time. Temi, Jane and Tony will be there to guide you through it. Good Luck I feel sure you will join me in wishing our SELNWK team all the best in their first season! (Tony Hart) Tell your Key worker if you are interested in joining any of these groups.
Sign up to our new mindfulness and yoga course. Lead your mind to a natural place of rest using different Meditation Techniques such as breath awareness and visualisation. We will combine a gentle restorative workout with stretches to relax the body & mind. This course is free and open to our members, carers, volunteers and staff. It starts this week on Friday September 11th - December 18th 10.30am - 12.00 noon. To join in contact Patricia (Tricia) on 0203 058 1018 or 07817 951055 or email triciareilly@headwayselnwk.co.uk Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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Staff Profile – Georgia Georgia Mobbs is a keyworker at Headway SELNWK. We caught up with her to ask her what it’s like to deliver a service from the end of the phone. Who’s on your client list? I’ve got 20 members who I contact at least once a week. I’m currently furloughed every Thursday. How have you found your job since lockdown began? Lockdown happened so quickly it changed our ways of doing things overnight. So instead of going into Shrewsbury House to do face to face sessions which I loved, I was at home with a work phone and laptop, trying to engage members in a whole new way. I struggled to find a routine at the beginning but now I feel much more productive and motivated. I’m up at 7.30, and after that I’ll set up my workstation, answer emails and check what meetings I’ve got. I generally talk to 5-6 members a day and bit by bit we’re exploring new things we can do together over the phone and internet. I spoke to one member who was struggling to find something to do that he enjoyed. We went through his interests and concluded that getting a dartboard would fill the gap. He loves it and now plays every day. What do you miss? Going into Shrewsbury House and being surrounded by people. Has anything changed recently? Yes, it has. I think as an organisation we’ve got a new confidence in how we can deliver our services to members and get people involved. There’s Headway radio of course plus this newsletter. But we’re also setting up new groups (see page 2) and I know that the newsletter team get real benefit from members volunteering. We’ve got other groups in the pipeline too which we think members will want to join and we’ll be announcing details about them soon. Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
Page | 7 What do members think of how Headway is now engaging them? At first lots of people didn’t want to talk over the phone and a lot of people said how bored they were because of lockdown. They felt uncomfortable talking over the phone and wanted to go back to face to face contact. But things have settled down now and there’s more to choose from. Everyone responds in a different way. Some people just want a chat, others want to do quizzes or word games, read through the newsletter together or listen to Headway radio. There’s been a positive reaction to the new groups. How did you come to join Headway? I needed to do some work experience as part of a college course I was doing a few years ago. The college wanted me to work in a nursing home but a friend recommended Headway. I’d never heard of them and didn’t know anything about brain injuries but thought it sounded interesting. Everyone was so nice and it really opened my eyes to the challenges faced by people with brain injuries. I didn’t want to leave. I asked if I could volunteer which I did for two months before I was offered a permanent post as keyworker last September and here I am. What’s the question you get asked the most? When will Headway re-open its face to face services? I wish I could give them an answer! Georgia was interviewed by Liam on Headway SELNWK radio. You can listen to her interview here https://www.hsradio.co.uk/interviewsandlivesets
Carers & Family update We will be relaunching our Carers & Family group via zoom on Thursday 17th September from 7 – 9 p.m. More details from triciareilly@headwayselnwk.co.uk Tricia will be emailing Carers and members’ families this week so look out for an email. If you don’t receive it please email Tricia or call her on 07817 951055
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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Word Game Try and find as many words of 3 letters or more using the letters of the following word – each letter of the word can only be used once in each word. (e.g. words from PEOPLE could include peep, pope, lope). The word this issue is RECOLLECTION Email your list to newsletter@headwayselnwk.co.uk by 30th September and we will publish who found the most words and who found the longest word. Once again Chandip has won last issue’s game with 22 words. The longest is 7 letters long! (Flavour). We are spicing things up this issue and are introducing a prize – WoooHooo!!! - for both most words found and the longest word.
Volunteer update We have 2 new volunteers – Hannah and Stella. Both are joining some of the groups and Stella is really forging ahead with our social media output. Watch this space!
Coffee or Tea? Every issue we ask our Headway SELNWK community to tell us what they like. The questions are always the same but the answers are always different. This month it’s Huss’s turn. He’s busy building his dream (virtual) house. Coffee or Tea? Definitely coffee. I’ve grown up with coffee since I was small. When a visitor comes round to our house they are always offered Turkish coffee –
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
Page | 9 very strong coffee in small cups. This is what I’ll drink when we have guests but when I’m out and about I’ll probably have a latte. Cats of Dogs? I had a bad experience with a dog when I was a child as it chased me. So I much prefer cats. My cat is called Zili which is Turkish for bell, as when we got her she had a bell around her neck. She’s black and white. Fish and Chips or Roast Dinner? My dad used to do homemade fish and chips. He’d go down to the fishmonger and get a whole cod and then make his own batter. It was great. Xbox or X-Men? I’d much rather watch films than play games. My favourite is the Iron Man series where a world famous engineer builds a suit of armour and becomes a superhero. Shopping or Sport? I’m always browsing online, particularly house design and furniture. Instagram is good for this. Iphone or Android? Android without a doubt. I feel with iphones you have to pay Apple just to do stuff. Early Bird or Night Owl? Sort of in the middle – a hybrid. I’m usually up by 7.30am and asleep by 10.30pm Springsteen or Beyonce? I don’t listen to music much so no preference.
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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Puzzle How about testing your memory? See what you can remember from this issue without flipping back through the pages: • Which member of staff is being profiled? • What does she miss most during lock down? • Why is Huss’s cat called Zili? Did you find that easy? Try two more • Which groups are active? • Which day this week does the yoga & mindfulness course start? The answer to last issue’s puzzle is “Mouse”
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Greg’s Art Attack – my challenge!! Greg’s been on holiday this month so more in the next issue. Whilst on holiday Greg relaxed totally and kept himself busy with domestic chores in Grenoble France. Enchanté mes amis!
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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Discussion Corner Anorak Alert!!!
This is a new section. To join in, read the following article and send any comments you have on the subject to newsletter@headwayselnwk.co.uk . We will publish your views in the next issue Air quality – how it affects our health. Background: According to the World Health Organisation there are 4 important pollutants directly associated with our health. • Particulate matter (particularly particles weighing 2.5ng or less) – PM2.5 • Oxides of nitrogen – particularly nitrous oxide - NO2 • Sulphur compounds • Ozone. The first two are the most important and countries are encouraged to reduce their concentrations in the air. Exposure to high concentrations of small particulates (PM2.5) may lead to increased death or disease, both daily and over time. Studies have shown that symptoms of bronchitis in asthmatic children increase with long-term exposure to NO2. During the pandemic people have reported improvements in their health which they have associated with improved air quality – mainly due to reduction in air and road traffic. There is a monitoring site in Bexley. The figures aren’t perfect but there is an indication that during the summer months the levels of NO2 were lower than in the winter and that during August they were beginning to rise. They also are slightly lower this year than last (however this is comparing half a year with a whole Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
P a g e | 12 year). For particulates the only change is in the maximum daily average concentration, which is lower this year than last. Opinions (not Headway SELNWK views): Tricia has noticed a big improvement in her asthma – she has only had to use her inhaler once since the start of lockdown. Jen is miffed because Lewisham council has closed all the roads round her to improve health – by reducing pollution and by making it easier for people to walk and cycle. While she believes the aims are good the thinking is flawed – for a start every one wanting to go West from her zone has to drive an extra 30 minutes in slow traffic as all routes to the West except the South Circular and the A20 have been closed. At the same time the amount of traffic from outside the zone is hardly reduced as much of it is due to learner drivers. What are your experiences? Have you noticed an improvement in health? Are you being affected by road closures that reduce your mobility options? Have you any other thoughts/observations? Send us your views and we may publish them in the next issue. To come in a future issue– Discussion on carbon dioxide and climate change.
Fundraising We have applied to The Chatman Charitable Trust in partnership with the Blue Elephant Theatre in Camberwell for funds to support a new online drama group. Covid update We continue to work behind the scenes on our route map back into the centres and community face to face support. We are still not able to return to pre COVID ways of working and continue to support remotely through our online groups, radio Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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and telephone support. Try one of them out if you haven’t already - See page 2 above.
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
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Recipe for Coq au Vin from Jen. A simple luxury dish to impress friends who come round for a meal. Preparation time - 20 minutes Cooking time – 1 hour Serves - 2 -4 Depending on quantity of meat Can be cooked in advance and reheated for the occasion Ingredients 1 Leg of chicken with bone and skin on per person 1-2 Rashers of bacon per person – chopped ¼lb Mushrooms – whole if small otherwise chopped or sliced 2 Shallots sliced 1 Clove of garlic 2Tbs Flour ½pt Red Wine ½pt Chicken stock Oil and butter as needed Salt and pepper to taste (lb = pound, pt = pint; Tbs = Tablespoon) Method 1. Heat oven to 200⁰C/180⁰C fan/gas mark 6 2. Sauté mushrooms and onions in a little oil 3. Add bacon and brown 4. Remove 1 & 2 from pan and keep warm. 5. Sauté chicken in same oil.
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
P a g e | 16 6. Remove from pan and keep with mushrooms etc: 7. Add about 1oz of butter and crushed garlic plus the flour. If the flour remains too dry once thoroughly mixed with the oil/butter in the pan, add a bit more butter. 8. Add the wine and stock slowly and in small quantities at a time. Stir vigorously with the flour between each addition to ensure no lumps develop. 9. Place all the ingredients in a casserole and cook in the oven for at least 1 hour until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Serve with new potatoes or crispy French bread and green vegetables To serve the next day – keep cold overnight and reheat at 180⁰C/160⁰fan/gas mark 4 for 40 minutes Serve and enjoy
Call for more recipes: We hope to include a recipe each week so please send your favourite recipe to newsletter@headwayselnwk.co.uk
Your ideas count Please tell us what you think of this newsletter – any suggestions for improvement? News you would like to share (especially if positive)? -email newsletter@headwayselnwk.co.uk
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
P a g e | 17 Our Social Media Please like and share our Facebook and Twitter Pages Facebook: @Headway South East London North West Kent
Photo of the Month – September is “Hats for Headway”. Get snapping NEW Weekly updates. Every Monday here on Facebook
Facebook: @Headway SELNWK Radio
Check in for latest news and views
Twitter: @SELNWKHeadway
Note: These are the only social media platforms we currently use. There are other versions e.g. HeadwaySELNWK which ARE NOT in use by us.
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF
P a g e | 18 We hope you enjoy this edition of Headway SELNWK’s newsletter as we have very much enjoyed putting it together! If you would like to join our Newsletter Team please contact Tricia on 07817 951055 or email the team at newsletter@headwayselnwk.co.uk
Newsletter Production Team: Greg Thorn – Member, Volunteer & Art Attack Lead Jeff Clare – Member, Volunteer, Peer Support & Topical Issues Lead Jen Gillard – Volunteer & Editor Sally Miller – Volunteer & Lead Reporter Patricia Reilly (Tricia) – Community Organiser & Staff Lead
Are you a member?
Contact our Community Organiser Tricia on on 07817 951055 or email her at triciareilly@headwayseln wk.co.uk She will have a conversation with you about what you want to get out of your volunteering role. Together you will develop a role that is beneficial for both parties.
Headway South East London & North West Kent Ltd Registered Charity No. 1084323 Affiliated to: Headway The Brain Injury Association 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF