Innovation Fund supports Headway Devon’s creative journaling project
The Devon Mental Health Alliance Innovation Fund has been awarded to Headway Devon by our Community Mental Health Development Leads in Exeter, East & Mid Devon.
We are pleased to announce that we will be supporting Headway Devon, a local charity which offers a number of therapeutic services to help improve life after brain injury, with a grant from our Innovation Fund. This funding will enable Headway to expand its innovative creative journaling project to 50 more people in the Exeter area.
Individuals who have experienced brain injuries are often left dealing with the emotional and practical impacts of not being able to live in the way they once had — a reality that can leave many people also experiencing severe mental health difficulties. Headway Devon has been working hard to innovate and develop tools to support individuals in coping with these changes. One tool that has been really successful is the creative journaling project, which uses creative journaling and peer support groups to process those changes in a way that helps improve the mental health of those involved.
Seeing how successful the project was, Headway asked for our support to open the project up to others in the community who need similar help. You don't have to have experience of a brain injury to join a group, but many of the members do, so this might be of particular benefit to anyone with a brain injury (or neurological condition such as dementia or Parkinson’s), as well as anyone with friends or relatives living with this type of injury or trying to cope with such changes.
Creative journaling can help us all to work through difficult periods of our lives, writing down thoughts and feelings we might not normally be able to express to others. We can then step back and reflect on past events and consider things from new angles, so that we can work towards more positive mindsets and take more control over difficult thoughts and feelings.
If you live in the Exeter area and are interested in joining Headway Devon’s creative journaling project, please contact Hannah Blatchford on hannahb@headwaydevon.org.uk or 01392 211 822.