Brainwave

About the charity

Since 1982 Brainwave has been working with families to deliver individual home based therapies and exercises that help children, with disabilities and development delay, reach their full potential.

The Charity sees children with a whole range of issues including brain injuries, such as Cerebral Palsy and genetic conditions e.g. Down’s Syndrome, Developmental Delay and Autism. Families are invited to one of the centres or clinics where each child is assessed and a Programme of exercises is designed by the therapy team according to the child’s individual needs. Parents and carers are shown how to carry out the Programme so that they can undertake them at home and work towards achieving the child’s goals. This could be anything from feeding themselves or walking to recognising numbers or forming sentences.

Significant numbers of children now lead more independent lives as a result of the successful partnership between Brainwave’s therapy team and the children’s dedicated parents and carers, who embrace the home-based Programme. The feedback from parents says it all; 85% of parents says it made a significant difference to their child. To quote one:

 “Without Brainwave we would have no hope and wouldn't know what to do with our child”.

The enquiries to Brainwave are up 40% on last year and the charity opened a third Centre in Warrington, Cheshire to cope with the increasing demand. This is in addition to its two existing permanent centres, in Bridgwater, Somerset, and Witham, Essex and its satellite clinics in both Scotland and Ireland. Once home, Brainwave provides support and information to families through ongoing contact with therapy staff and through a team of locally based Regional Family Coordinators.

To fund its work the charity relies totally on voluntary donations from the public, companies and trusts, together with contributions from families, carers and other service users. No money is received from the NHS or other statutory bodies.