Cirencester Stroke Club
Julie is a retired specialist stroke nurse who now volunteers with her local support group because she knows how important her expertise could be to someone recovering from a brain injury.
Before she retired Julie would often visit Cirencester Stroke Club’s meetings to find out more about their work and offer them advice on the best way to support people following a stroke. As she explained, this kind of injury “is a life-changing moment for people and their loved ones. The club helps people make adjustments in their lives to those changes.”
If people are feeling isolated they are welcome along to the group to share their own personal stories to help improve their self-esteem and they can join in with the club’s weekly exercise group if they want to. All of the activities are set up to help re-integrate brain injury survivors seamlessly back into society so that they can try to live a full and independent life. With the experience and support that Julie brings to the group this integration is made even easier.
Julie first heard about the group whilst still working at Gloucester Royal Hospital. She began telling her patients about the great work that the club was doing to make sure they were getting the best aftercare and neuro support following their discharge from hospital.
Cirencester Stroke Club is also affiliated with the National Stroke Association, this means that is a lot easier for them to circulate printed leaflets at GP surgeries and occasionally print adverts in local newsletters, like the Cirencester Scene. By circulating these leaflets, and with people like Julie spreading the word about the work which the club does, more and more people in the local area can get the support they need.
There are lots of local support groups for all different types of brain injury who rely on circulating leaflets and word of mouth to make sure everyone is aware of the support that is out there. When developing the Neuro Recovery Directory, we spoke to many support services who explained to us how difficult it can be to reach people, especially over the last 18 months when face-to-face interactions and trips out have been limited because of the pandemic. That is why SameYou believe it is so important to offer a voice to local groups and support their online presence by signposting people to their services via the directory.
Not only is it helpful for support groups to be heard but it also means that the people recovering from these life-changing events have a greater understanding of the services in their area. Neurorehabilitation following brain injury it can be a challenging time and knowing where to find information about support services can be hard for anyone. That is why making sure that all this information is easily accessible is so important. Hopefully, by signposting people to the local services in their area this information is more accessible, and that means that everyone can get the necessary support.
By working together, SameYou and services like Cirencester Stroke Club can make sure that they are not just reliant on spreading information by word of mouth. Local services now have the option of promoting themselves online. By supporting each other, more groups can develop their online presence and use new technological ways to reach people who they previously may not have been able to. One of SameYou’s main principles is that change only happens through collaboration and this highlights just how much success can happen when various organisations come together to support one another.
Sign your group up today to become part of SameYou’s collaborative neuro network!