This Sunday, national care and rehabilitation charity British Home is launching its first National Neuro-Disabilities Day to raise awareness of living with such conditions.
For over 150 years the charity has been helping residents at its London-based home and it is now looking to use that experience to get more people talking about this.
Keith Crowhurst is the organisation’s director of care and he spoke about how the idea for the day came about.
“It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while now,” he said. “While reading a lot about neuro disability when we were looking to develop our own services we were quite surprised by the lack of information that was out there.
“There have been many things where people talk about raising awareness and we felt it’s very much part of our strategy going forward and is something as a charity we should be doing.
“We had a discussion and felt that actually having a day where we focus on the wide range of aspects of neuro disability would be a really good idea.
“It’s about just raising the profile of neuro-disability in general, but also for us as an organisation as well.”
British Home is looking to run the event on the sixth of June every year, with this date representing the one in six people who are affected by these disabilities.
The group is hoping this will make more people aware of how widespread this is and highlight just how many people it impacts.
This awareness is the driving factor behind this initiative and British Home are hoping that the event will start more conversations around the issue.
“To us it’s such a wide area that affects so many people,” Keith said. “People think about major things like stroke, for example, but for all the other varieties of neuro-disability or conditions that can lead to one, there’s not as much awareness.
“So it’s very much to start that process and to become part of the conversation around that.
“Not only talking about the negative side of these disabilities, allowing people to see the effects of it, but also talking about some of the research that’s going into all the technology that’s being used to support people.
“With the right levels of support people can have a very fulfilled life with many different ranges of neuro-disability.”
On the day itself British Home has a number of activities planned for its residents and those coming to visit.
Information around neuro-disabilities will be set out for those visiting, with games and special meals all taking place to make the day enjoyable for its residents.
In the lead up to this the charity has set up the #BHIceCubeChallenge where contestants are asked to video themselves throwing an ice cube into a cup in the most creative ways possible.
After they have donated to British Home they then need to nominate six friends, again to represent those affected by these conditions.
All of this has been designed to give residents something to smile about after what has been a difficult year for those in care homes.
Getting their families involved after long periods without them is key for the charity as they look to give them something positive to focus on.
“We’re trying to make it a day that’s enjoyable,” Kieth said. “But it’s also got a very clear message about what it is we’re trying to promote.
“We want to give our residents have the opportunity to talk about that as well what their experiences are like, including both the positives and negatives that they’ve gone through that may help other people going forward.”
With so much experience in the care sector British Home offers people a wide pathway to care for those who live with these disabilities.
It puts the individual at the heart of the process, offering them bespoke rehabilitation as well as residential care.
Things like palliative and respite care are also on offer for those who need it.
The charity is looking to run the National Neuro-Disabilities Day annually from now on and have recently outlined a new five year structure to strengthen its future plans.
Getting more involved in the community is part of this, so is expanding the range of services it offers as well as looking at using new technologies to help its residents.
Fundraising will be key to this with British Home looking to commit extra funds for refurbishment and modernisation work on its centre.
With increased awareness this is more than possible and it is only being boosted by initiatives like the Neuro-Disabilities Day.
