Supporting social and community participation through group programs at BISA.
Brain Injury SA has recognised the need for establishing groups to support clients to build skills related to community and social participation whilst also incorporating physical rehabilitation goals. Some participants have been coming to BISA for many years and their sessions can be the only social and community activity they have in the day or week, and therefore building skills to extend social and community participation is crucial to the rehabilitation journey.
Our Bowling Group Program, designed to support physical rehabilitation goals in a leisure-based activity, targeting specific upper limb, mobility, communication and social participation goals, has become a regular feature in our yearly calendar, with our initial group starting in the North at Elizabeth, before expanding to the City and South.
Our group programs have continued to grow and expand, and we are please to be able to offer a diverse range of group programs to meet different interests and skill development, including a dance group, balance group and a yoga and mindfulness group.
We have also been busy planning the commencement of a community garden space at the Southern hub – which through a co-design approach, will involve participant input in creating the projects to support the development of the garden – and will become another group program to be involved in.
Across the next 12 months we look forward to introducing this group, and more, to the services and supports we can offer at BISA.
Spotlight – New Group: Speech Pathology
In 2023 the Speech Pathology team at BISA ran their first Cognitive-Communication Group, a program based on the evidenced-informed model IMPACT.
Cognitive Communication disorders are the most prevalent type of communication difficulties following an ABI with an incidence of up to 80–100% (Mac Donald and Wiseman-Hakes, 2010). The group is run every week over a 6-week period, with an additional one-to-one weekly session with each participant with the speech pathologist facilitating the group. Throughout the sessions, participants work towards individual goal planning, functional focus and metacognitive strategies.
This program is unique as it provides clients with the opportunity to work on their communication goals, both privately and in a social group setting.
