News

This is the first of our brand new “What we learned this Month…..” postings in which we intend to open the doors of Oxford Head Injury Services so you can take a look inside and see what we have been up to, we hope you enjoy them and look forward to hearing about what you think about Oxford Head Injury Services.

Oxford Head Injury Services is now a Homeowner!

Since 2002 Oxford Head Injury Services homebase has been in the heart of Kennington on Bagley Wood Road at our Activity and Rehabilitation Center (A.R.C) Here we run all our Activity and Rehabilitation sessions and from out of the offices we despatch our carers and Personal Assistants out to our members group sessions and home visits throughout the county.

We are proud of our home, it’s where we lay our hat, but as the new year dawned we got the exciting news that we can now share with you, until 2016 we have been renting the property, but we we are now entering a new and exciting era in our history as as the owners of  the building.

We couldn’t be more excited as we have always had ambitious plans to upgrade and expand the building so we can offer our members new and enhanced services. We have plans drawn up and ready to go!

We will share these with you in future posts, so watch this space!

A cut to far: The Enough Is Enough Campaign keeps on the pressure

As you are probably aware Oxfordshire County Council have recently announced a further £69 million cuts that even it says goes beyond it’s worst case scenario.

The Council is recommending wide ranging and catastrophic cuts that will affect the entire community, including the vital services that we offer at Oxford Head Injury Services.

You can read here what Jamie Miller our CEO thinks of these “Catastrophic” cuts and the brutal effect it will have services for vulnerable people in our community.

Oxford Head Injury Services is proud to be a member of  Enough Is Enough an unprecedented alliance of care providers and voluntary organisations that came to together to voice collective opposition to the cuts and make people aware of the impact the cuts will have. You can read more about the campaign here

The campaign has focused media attention on the issue and Oxford Head Injury Services have featured strongly as the story has played out in the local press, TV and radio.

ITV Meridian news visited the center in Kennington to interview  Jamie our CEO and Headway member and fundraiser Andy Baker who raises money for us through his Charity Play2Give about the effect of the proposed cuts

You can watch the Meridian report here

Jamie was also a guest on BBC Radio Oxford on the eve of the cuts announcement to give our view, listen to Jamie’s interview here.

The Cuts will have an effect on our services, but we are confident in the future of Oxford Head Injury Services and our hugely exciting plans for the center show our commitment to not only continue our services but also to expand them. But your continued support will be vital as we move in to this new period in our history.

Headway news

:Our Personal Assistant service is continuing to flourish, with three new clients in the past month alone.  We provide a truly person-centred service that focuses on enabling our service users to socialise with others and improve their lives.  This allows us to give more in-depth support to those who need it and has the added advantage of bringing in some much needed funds to help us run the rest of our service.

If you are interested in finding out more about our Personal Assistant service please speak to Claire or Zoe at the ARC, or give us a ring and we will visit you in your home to talk about how we can help you to build a better life.

Some of our recent referrals to both the ARC and our PA service have been for service users with complex needs, requiring a high level of support, skill and knowledge and understanding of brain injury from our staff team.  We are very proud that we provide comprehensive training to our staff, so that they understand how to empower our service users and support them to deal with difficulties caused by their brain injuries.

:Also we are now recruiting for a brand new Personal Assistant for Headway

Do you go home each day feeling great about yourself, knowing that you have made a real difference to someone else’s life in your community? We DO!

Take a look at the full job description here Get paid for Just being you

:Polly and Emma from Oxford Head Injury Services have linked up  with a Charity in Didcot; SOFEA are a charity that support people to volunteer and gain work experience and / or educational qualifications, It is run by Richard and Ruth who are both ex – teachers.

This month Andy Baker and two of Emma’s clients went to meet with SOFEA and are to begin volunteering there and it is hoped they will make great progress. The charity is always looking to make good links to its community and won a “Didcot Oscar” in the Business and Community Awards  in November as did Andy for his Play2Give Charity.

: We started the new year with our first ever drop-in group at the A.R.C. The group meets every second Monday each month and is well attended  by both current and past Headway members. We are hoping to see the numbers rise during the year. If you would like more to know more or would like to join this group call Tim on 01865 326623

: Debbie has completed her training to become a My Guide Trainer, she is now qualified is to be able to guide blind and partially sighted people safely and securely in the community.

A.R.C Activities in January

Activities in the A.R.C have included:

 

New Year New New health shake sessions: How to make your own health Fruit and Veg shakes, by experimenting we discovered some quite amazing flavour sensations, though as you can see by Patrick’s face not all where totally successful!

 Mindfulness sessions: Loueze is putting her studying to good use and has started incorporating Mindfulness classes into the ARC timetable.

Coming soon at Oxford Head Injury Services

 Occupational Therapy (OT) program that will begin in the ARC in February

Occupational therapy (OT) is the use of assessment and treatment to develop, recover, or maintain the daily living and work skills of people with a physical, mental, or cognitive disorder.

OT’s can help people with long term conditions:

• Carry out activities of daily living, such as dressing, cooking or using public transport
• Remain in employment
• Manage their own conditions effectively
• Remain living in their own homes safely through home adaptations
• Use specialist equipment or develop “coping strategies”
• Manage fatigue

 

Carer Advice Evenings- dates announced

Oxford Head Injury Services are running two free evenings for carers, friends and family members who are new to acquired or traumatic brain injury, or would like more information.

We will also let you know the support and services Oxford Head Injury Services can offer you and your family and friends

and you will have the chance to meet fellow carers and swap stories and experiences.

Both the evenings will take place at our center in Kennington

Tuesday 8th March 7:00pm-8:30pm

: How Oxford Head Injury Services can help you and what services we offer

: The various effects of brain injury

: Ideas on where to get assistance, solutions and suggestions on how to manage

: Where you can get support

Tuesday 12th April 7:00pm-8:30pm

: How Oxford Head Injury Services can help you and what services we offer

: Other sources of support in Oxfordshire

: Benefits information and tips

As always at Oxford Head Injury Services there will plenty of tea coffee and biscuits on hand!

For more information on these free evenings and how to attend please phone

01865 326 263 and ask for Emma or Polly

or e-mail emma@headway-oxford.org.uk

And Finally

It still early in the year but caring is a full time job, so make sure like Dude the Dog one of our chief carers you get plenty of sleep!

 

 

 

Enough is Enough

Local Government short-term measures are storing up long-term problems says “Enough Is Enough” Campaign

This afternoon, Voluntary Sector Organisations campaigning against the proposed 95 Budget Options in Oxfordshire gathered outside of County Hall, Oxford and urged Cabinet to reject the proposed way forward to balance Oxfordshire County Council’s budget.

The growing alliance, of which Oxford Head Injury Services is proud to be a member includes a widening range of voluntary sector services, information and advice services, and registered care providers, is an unprecedented coalition, voicing concerns about proposals to save a further £73m from Oxfordshire County Council’s budgets on top of year-on-year cuts. The £73m includes the original 95 Budget Options cuts of £50m, plus a further £23m announced on 8 December.

The short-term solution that the Council are proposing will do nothing to prevent long-term damage to local services.  Today’s decision by Council’s Cabinet is likely to be rubber-stamped at Full Council on 16 February, sounding the death-knell for many vital voluntary sector services and ignoring the human impact.

The Budget Options have been prompted by further national government reductions to local government funding under the Local Government Funding Settlement and a continued ideological demolition of public sector services.  Despite the changes to future local government funding arrangements, including proposed retention of local business rates, both decisions, if made as expected, will risk causing serious harm to the wellbeing of Oxfordshire’s vulnerable residents and Oxfordshire’s communities.

There is a lack of care at national government about the front-line impact of its policy; the disconnect between national and local government leaders, is embodied by the widening disagreement between the Prime Minister and the Leader of Oxfordshire County Council.

The Enough is Enough alliance says that the 95 Budget Options will affect local vulnerable and elderly people in a cumulative and wide-ranging way; from the wider impact of the removal of funding for subsidised buses to the specific halting of funding for exceptionally high-quality and effective voluntary sector service providers, without whom it is simply not possible to provide social care locally. Many of these services are prevention services, designed and delivered to stop people needing more intensive services, which cost the tax-payer more.

A vulnerable person may be someone who has a life-long condition from birth, or one which has crept up over a period of months or years, or a life-changing accident which makes yesterday so much different to today or tomorrow. It could be you or me. All of these issues have a ripple effect breaking on family, friends and our Oxfordshire communities.

Eddy McDowall, Chief Executive of Oxfordshire Association of Care Providers said, “We are now at the tipping point for public services. Coupled with year-on-year downward pressure on funding for registered social care providers, causing providers to withdraw from the market, we now have the imminent destruction of essential complementary prevention services. We are looking for leadership from local government to lead the way out of the mess created by national government. This should begin by recognising their statutory responsibility under the Care Act to properly fund and deliver prevention services. Further cuts are short-term measures that will cost the tax payer many millions more in the medium and longer term and will sink our health services”.

Jamie Miller, Chief Executive Officer at Oxford Head Injury Services and Chair, Oxfordshire Neurological Alliance said, “The continued pursuit of brutal short-term cuts will cost our NHS many millions annually. These cuts will create a catastrophe for voluntary sector community prevention services such as Oxford Head Injury Services, causing misery to vulnerable people and adding costs to our more expensive health services”.

Paul Cann, Chief Executive, AgeUK Oxfordshire and Action for Carers Oxfordshire said, “We urge the Council Cabinet to think long and hard about the parlous state of care for vulnerable people.  By voting for these cuts, the Council is voting for social isolation. These savings proposals will cause distress and hardship for unpaid carers and older people. The Council must realise that cutting prevention services will hinder people staying active and out of hospitals and care homes”.

The Campaign informs and enables people to tell local Councillors and local MPs of the impact of the cuts on them.

More details of the campaign are at www.oacp.org.uk/features.