Military & VeteransCertified Rehabilitation Counselor and Brain Injury Specialist Allison Tebbe discusses the origins and evolution of Bastion's programs like Headway. She describes the benefits and success of "Community as Intervention."
For information on Bastion Community of Resilience: https://www.joinbastion.org/
Headway is a multifaceted community integration program for veterans who served on or after 9/11 living with a brain injury, spinal cord injury, or other neurological condition — working with warriors and caregivers to maximize independence, improve skills, and build supportive networks. For information on Bastion Community of Resilience's Headway Program: https://www.joinbastion.org/headway.html
Allison Tebbe: When I came on board in 2018, it was with the intention of opening a community integration program for veterans living with brain injuries. That did happen. We opened it, Headway, in 2019, and then as the years went on, we realized this day program was so enmeshed in the community that it was intuitive for me to become involved with all of our programming. And so now I do manage the Headway Program and work with our clinicians on that, but I also manage a number of our residential programs like food support, vocational rehab, and things of that nature. The Headway Program has evolved over the years, so it started with just one staff member, me and three veterans as a community integration program where the idea was really just fighting the isolation that veterans living with brain injuries are often experiencing. We knew from the VA and from other sources that there were thousands of veterans with brain injuries in Southeast Louisiana and that most of them were not accessing their community.
And so being in this beautiful, intentional neighborhood at Bastion, it was so intuitive. Well, why wouldn't we create a space here for those people both to be able to come together as peers, but also to be able to, with some support, go out into the community and engage even with people who aren't veterans and engage with their interests and hobbies and even identify interests and hobbies? Because for a number of people when they started the program, when they joined Headway, in some cases, they hadn't really left their couch in 10 or 15 years just due to a lack of options. And so the program was really built in response to fighting that isolation. And then a beautiful thing happened, which was we realized it doesn't just have to be going out into the community. We can build this out and offer more support. And that's when we brought on the occupational therapy team, which has been such a game changer.
Community-based occupational therapy, in my opinion, and I'm not an occupational therapist, is such an underutilized resource. And to see it in action with the veterans in the Headway Program, be able to not just work towards their personal goals with the support of occupational therapists and social workers and vocational rehab, but to also connect with peers and connect with their community has been such a powerful thing to see. And we've seen it borne out day to day, anecdotally in what these individuals tell us and the stories they share, and also in the assessments we do and the metrics and tracking over time, demonstrating that people's independence levels are increasing, their sense of self is increasing, their sense of purpose is increasing. And so much of this is just the nature of community as intervention.
Narrator: BrainLine is powered in part by Wounded Warrior Project to honor and empower post-9/11 injured service members, veterans, and their families.
About the author: Allison Tebbe
As a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and Certified Brain Injury Specialist, prior to joining the Bastion team she supported Wounded Warrior Project’s Independence Program and Disability Rights Louisiana’s Housing Assistance Plus Program. In her free time Allison participates in community organizing efforts towards accessible healthcare and housing in the Greater New Orleans area.
