Welcome to our Activities page. Scroll through to read more about the activities our clients do here at Headway Suffolk.
Also, please check out our Gallery Page with the many pictures of our clients enjoying the activities.
We currently have groups such as basic skills, which helps clients improve in day to day life activities such as cooking and we help others that currently are looking at moving out and needing more independence so they need to relearn life skills such as basic budgeting so for example using our food shop and picking meals they would like to make at home with a realistic price (food shop is free) to prepare the individual to know how to spend money correctly when on a budget.
Communication group is giving clients support to read and write also improve their speech. We have a number of clients that have limited speech due to their brain injury and whilst attending this group they have shown improvement on this gradually.
Staff have been planning groups on a one-to-one setting with clients, reading books together to build confidence reading and speaking out loud. Using computers and typing short stories they have picked, practicing their lack of strength with handwriting, struggling with their cognitive, speech, reading and writing after suffering an acquired brain injury.
Men’s group and drama group is wonderful for getting out there and they have created a number of their own panto/plays, it is amazing to see all the clients involved as a character and adding their own ideas along with other staff and clients who are involved in the group, making their props for their pantos/plays. Creating mostly comedies with a mix of different twists they like to add such as reboots of the grinch, EastEnders, the kings coronation and many more.
We’ve introduced more structure in our music group, so clients learn about the benefits of music for the person’s well-being and what effects it has on the brain. It reduces stress, trauma and anxiety, controls chronic pain, creating a sense of social connection bringing others together or releases bottled-up anger or aggression. Including drumming/drumming circle to release any tension or emotions from the individual, singing, which boosts the immune system, enhances core memory and mental health. is vibro-therapy which is creating meditation and relaxation music. ‘all instruments’ this has been proven that this reduces high blood pressure or heart rates also reduces anxiety and depression. Clients have been enjoying this so far and encourages enthusiasm to start their morning off for the rest of the day.
Exercise to music is suitable for all our wheelchairs service users and our mobile able clients too, different exercises are moderate exercises, weights, Zumba and yoga. Which are all beneficial for any clients that would like to join in, following stretches before every exercise, going to following staff step by step of different movements and then relaxation techniques/cool down stretches when finishing. We also use grip balls and bean bags to help with hand and arm co-ordination. Exercise to music wakes everyone and realises endorphins so they’re ready for the day.
Cooking sweet and savoury snacks, in our baking groups, we’re currently doing this every other day as another options for clients to participate in, clients who are fully able to bake on their own, minimum support when wanting to build the confidence to do so on their own or our clients who need the full support from staff to complete this task and they take them home with them at the end of the day.
Arts and crafts are one our most popular groups which has been amazing see, so the clients get as creative as they want and inspired from our subjects and using different materials which is amazing for our clients that love the sensory side of it such beads, tissue paper, paper mache, felt paper, inks and paints for example.
All clients taking part in art and crafts have been getting creative using materials such as collaging, air clay, chalk and painting the walls, even creating wall mural’s around the hub.
Make Headway has been an incredible confidence boost for many of our clients who have attended, it’s our “get back to work” group, it prepares anyone that wants to get back into a career or for other who may not being looking at that path due to brain injury but simply want to feel determined to finish any aims they have for the group, over the Christmas period make headway created Christmas wax melt calendar’s, they design the calendar and made the wax melts themselves and advertised them on Facebook and all over the hub. Also made their own tombola game and created small hampers of headway Suffolk logo mugs, sweets and hot chocolate sachets. They manage to sell all their stock and all the money they had left for it they will reuse for their next project or day out to cover expenses.
Swimming at crown pools, we prompt clients to swim laps, swimming exercise to use their hands and feet also assisting clients who have previously had a stroke to prompt them to us pool noodles to wrap around their weaker arm so it supports their other arm to swim and other clients relearning how to gain confidence in themselves to be able to swim again post brain injury.
Swimming is a key to mobility therapy and strength client’s ability to swim. Swimming increases endorphins which leaves positive effects.
Bowling is a good social and friendly activity for our clients, staff assisted our clients to use the bowling balls also using bowling rails for our clients in wheelchairs, this helps clients build their confidence.
Ten Pin Bowling which helps balance, cognitive and focusing on the activity. One of the most engaging ways to stimulate the brain is through recreational therapy, the brain can have the ability to rewire itself and recover doing these activities.
History groups are to benefit and more suitable for clients, due to our clients having a brain injury/neurological conditions, splitting the group into two activities is effective for our clients learning about a subject for the first half then the second half creating something revolving around it to keep everyone stimulated.
Walking group is run by our physiotherapist every Tuesday afternoon depending on the weather, on cold and wet days we’ve given the clients another option which is to use our physiotherapy gym use all our equipment we’ve been donated such as a treadmill, exercise bikes and cross trainers and using our weighing scales to keep up to date with maintaining clients weight or if they want to lose weight. As soon as the weather is a bit warmer and suitable for our clients, we will get back into going for walks down the park with clients, noting times and how many laps the client does week by week to see any improvement’s over time.