Headway and the Child Brain Injury Trust joined forces to explore some of the issues around transition, with around 80 people attending a special conference called Bringing the Gap in brain injury services for adolescents in Wales earlier this month.
Speakers included Vaughan Gething AM, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, and local MP Nick Thomas-Symonds, a long-standing supporter of Headway.
Moving presentations from Kyle Hitchings and Leanne Nicholas revealed the real-life impact on families. Kyle spoke about how life for him and his family changed after he was hit by a car when he was 14, and spent 7 months in hospital and rehabilitation, learning how to walk and talk again. Leanne is mum to Jack, who has an acquired brain injury, and told the conference about some of the difficulties they have encountered, as Jack has been “too old for children’s services, but too young for adult services” in the contact the family has had with various elements of the health and care system.
The key activity of the day was a series of workshops looking at the issues and barriers encountered during transition from childhood to adulthood for ABI survivors and their families, and identifying potential solutions. The next step will see the conference organisers, Dave Maggs of Headway and Kelly Bevan from the Child Brain Injury Trust, producing a report and a series of actions to present to the Government of Wales, NHS Wales and local authorities, to improve the support given to survivors like Kyle and families like Leanne’s.
To register for a copy of the report, please email Dave.Maggs@Headway.org.uk
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