Follow Ben '09

Thursday 21st May.

ADAPT Clubhouse, Arlington Virginia (just south of Washington DC). I get a tour from Chuck. He shows me the computer room, the kitchen, the meeting room, the office. He shows me the maintenance room where they fix things and build things. There are bird feeders lined up, getting mended. He says the squirrels climb up and knock them off. He takes me outside and shows me the garden at the front. He says he likes gardening. At home he built a deck on the back of his house. He isn't that great at building things but his father in law is and he told him what to do. He likes cooking too. That's what he does here at the clubhouse most days - works in the kitchen. When he was in hospital he worried what was going to happen to him - wondered what he was going to do with himself. But just about right after he left hospital he found out about the Clubhouse. Its good because otherwise he would just be sitting at home.

It's a busy day. Brian, the director, and Keith, one of the unit coordinators are out for the morning, but there are visitors coming (in addition to me) and a barbeque lunch to cook. I help Chuck out in the kitchen. I break up the lettuce. I peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into chips. I chop the onion. I help form patties from the pink mush in the bowl. The Clubhouse is low on members today - a lot of them are on holiday. It's Chuck and Steve and Kimberly and Marshall and Elmo and Kevin. They seem to work together well, even if they get a bit confused at times. At lunch I talk to Anna, Marshall's personal aide. She is from El Salvador. We talk about how many Spanish people are in America. She calls them 'Spanish', making me think of people from Spain, but I know she means people from Mexico and Central and Southern America, people like her. She had a visa and flew to DC, where she now lives. She said her mother told her not to go through Mexico. It's too dangerous. If she was going through Mexico, she wasn't allowed to go. We talk about all the work Hispanics do in America, all the work nobody else wants to do. And how they helped elect Obama. We talk about how the powerful people in America don't want minorities getting power. She says perhaps next will be a Spanish president. I ask if she knows someone who would be good. She laughs and says perhaps one of her children. Elmo is sitting nearby. Elmo is from Bolivia. He tells me he came to America through Mexico, the way Anna's mother told her not to go. His English is poor and my Spanish is worse, but he makes it clear that he walked across the border. He makes a shuffling motion with his arms, to indicate crawling on his stomach. He also explains that he has had two head injuries: one caused by a fall when he was a child, the other more recent. In the US he has been working as a dishwasher. Sitting at the computer I show him Google Maps. I zoom slowly in on the house I have been living in in London. With the Street View we are able to see the front door, the trees and steps at the front. He wants to see his home in Cochabamba. We zoom out and in again on Bolivia. We get as close as we can but Street View has not been set up yet for his city. We can see the long road to Tiquipaya, where he lives, but no more. Anna shows us San Salvador, the capital of her country but, again no street view. She seems amazed at the satellite images none-the-less.

Brian appears and introduces himself. We sit and talk for a while. We seem to be on the same page about a number of things. He says he's excited about the idea of my trip. He wants to know what he can learn from me, what I think of the other Clubhouses. I point out that he is a man, and that his staff are both men too - and all of them are young (none of them much over 30). And they're good too. From what I have seen today they really get the point. Brian smiles and says he knows. He understands why I'm drawing attention to it. I ask how he managed it. Admittedly, ADAPT isn't huge, but for any organisation involved in social care (or something that looks like it) to have an all male staff team is good going. There is no magic spell. Brian admits that he wanted to have men on the team, but Keith and David were both the best candidates at the time they were employed. He didn't employ them because they're male. But he's glad to have them. 'If you don't have enough men on the team the dynamic is wrong for the client group' (brain injury through trauma is much more common among men and many of the Clubhouses, and Headway East London have predominantly male clients). We talk about the Clubhouse model as well. Brian says the members have been taking less of a lead lately. They need a few more people who can take initiative, he says. The model relies on having a diverse group, on having at least a few members who are good at forming plans and following through. It's hard though, he says, because those are the guys who are going to want to get back into work, and they're more often going to succeed, so they don't stick around. Brian seems to take the view that the Clubhouse model for brain injury is still very much in development. 'People talk about how this works and that doesn't and how this Clubhouse is better than that Clubhouse - but we all have things we do well and things we do less well. You make choices based on what's happening locally and where you can get money. But the big challenge is to make sure everyone is included. It's very easy to cherry-pick the best members, the ones that are going to get back to work, who have less severe injuries, but that leaves a whole lot of people out and that's no good.' I've heard this criticism leveled at programmes in the UK - and have leveled it myself on some occasions. It makes sense at a business level - by carefully screening out the more difficult clients you keep your success rates up. But ultimately this is a cynical practice, one based more on the perpetuation of careers and institutions than on the needs of the client group. Brian strikes me as being passionate about this stuff. He takes it seriously. He tells me about some of the other projects under the Brain Injury Services in Northern Virginia. One of them helps people with injuries learn public speaking skills. There will be a talk by one of them at a University in DC in June. I'd like to see it. Brian is shocked that I've never tried Hershey's Kisses. He shouts that they are the best chocolate. David is eating Trail Mix. He says Brian's obsessed. He has a box he keeps in the cupboard. Brian piles a handful in front of me, then another. Then he takes out a bag and fills it for me.

Dish: Ultimate Burro; Resaruant: Mexicali Blues, Arlington VA; Opinion: Extremely good.

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