tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86209997535136092752011-08-01T12:29:37.820-07:00Follow Ben '09Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.comBlogger601100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-29514609344119698652009-10-28T01:58:00.000-07:002009-10-29T07:58:48.987-07:00Wednesday 28th October
The Discovery Programme is now underway. This is Headway East London's new occupational programme, which I am running. Many of the projects involved are infulenced by things I saw on the Churchill Fellowship, some are directly drawn from the people and ideas I encountered there. You can read about it here.
Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-45583065617000207012009-07-13T04:08:00.000-07:002009-10-08T01:30:38.297-07:00Thursday 1st October I have to prepare a report for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, who funded my trip. I have six months to do this, but hopefully it will be done a little while before Christmas. I will post the report here, of course, but in lieu of this, and by way of some kind of closure, I will make a summary attempt:WHAT I LEARNED1) As proposed in my Starting Assumptions at the Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-79368304259834782522009-07-07T03:18:00.000-07:002009-07-13T04:08:34.175-07:00Tuesday 7th JulyI am glad to be home. Looking at the Undertakings I set out before I left, I make a list of things I did and didn't achieve.THINGS I DID DO1) I made a tour of brain injury reahbilitation programmes in the United States of America! I visited Clubhouses in Virginia. I visited Edgar Cahn in Washington DC. I visited John Corrigan and the TBI Network in Ohio. I visited the Brain InjuryBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-34197255770193734182009-06-23T19:53:00.001-07:002009-06-24T10:53:09.832-07:00Saturday 20th June
Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-66342626668984864222009-06-23T19:38:00.000-07:002009-06-23T19:52:55.716-07:00Friday 19th JuneBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-1160677183592096982009-06-23T19:33:00.001-07:002009-06-23T19:38:44.459-07:00Thursday 18th JuneBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-11995698973859194862009-06-23T19:24:00.001-07:002009-06-23T19:32:24.702-07:00Wednesday 17th JuneBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-59344626506899792282009-06-22T08:04:00.001-07:002009-07-10T03:26:56.327-07:00Tuesday 16th June.Mount Sinai Hospital is located right on Central Park, on the Upper East Side, an attractive part of the city. But the Brain Injury Research Centre operates out of the hospital's basement and, as I exit the lift I see immediately that it suffers from the same problems as the Day Program at Rusk - daylight is sparse here too. The lead researchers, Joshua and Theresa, each have a Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-14979751932930841372009-06-22T07:16:00.000-07:002009-11-11T01:07:16.077-08:00Monday 15th June
Fountain House is a large building on West 47th Street, in the Hell's Kitchen district, West of Midtown. There are five stories. Most of the work spaces are open plan. The top floor is a glass-walled addition with a mezzanine. Parts of it appear like traditional offices, others are more like the receptions spaces of a Victorian town house.
I am shown around by Maria. She has Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-4473321701082152382009-06-22T07:15:00.000-07:002009-06-22T09:43:34.035-07:00Sunday 14th JuneSaturday 13th JuneFriday 12th JuneBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-66474562171370449982009-06-20T09:09:00.000-07:002009-06-24T09:05:22.468-07:00Monday 8th June - Thursday 11th June.The Day Program at the Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation operates out of a group of offices on the third floor of one of the New York University buildings on 1st Avenue. They share the premises with the Institute's department of Vestibular Rehabilitation. The floor plan is a circuit, around which the small and largely windowless offices are arranged. It's thatBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-86038005152904534102009-06-07T18:55:00.001-07:002009-07-20T03:56:26.930-07:00Sunday 7th June.I go for a run. I buy food. I talk to my family on skype. I blog. I realise I have spent most of this week sorting out where I am staying. It has been a lot of work. I realise also that I booked too many visits in for this trip. I have only three weeks left. Tomorrow I will start a four day visit at Yehuda Ben-Yishay's Brain Injury Day Treatment Programme at the Rusk Institute forBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-22204275247464553492009-06-06T17:52:00.003-07:002009-06-07T19:20:27.811-07:00Saturday 6th June.My sore throat has gone but now my nose is running. I'm awake much of the night. Donna's cat, Gulliver, stays clear of me. I pack my stuff and get a cab over to Tamara's place. I am terribly tired. She gives me tea and half a bagel. She draws me a map of local things. I give her some money and take the keys and walk over to the apartment on Lafayette. It's perfect. There is Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-77620935724058274952009-06-06T17:52:00.001-07:002009-06-07T18:36:44.266-07:00Friday 5th June.It rains all day. I visit three more places from Craig's List - all of them in the Park Slope area. Two are being sublet by Tamara. She is Serbian. She tells me about her family. She runs for the crossing when the red hand is flashing. The two places are very good. One is a room in her own flat, the other a studio on the 8th floor of a building a few streets away. It has a view ofBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-85060824390755557162009-06-06T17:51:00.003-07:002009-06-07T19:18:04.790-07:00Thursday 4th June.I have made a mistake. Guy's room is incredibly noisy. I sleep badly and wake up with a sore throat. I wonder if there is something I am allergic to in here. Mold or dust. I agreed to stay here until the end of next week. I gave Guy $400. I rushed into it. I wanted to find a place. I wanted this place to be OK. But it isn't. I need to be able to sleep and concentrate for my Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-60563297359105500632009-06-06T17:51:00.001-07:002009-06-07T18:36:27.419-07:00Wednesday 3rd June.
Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-12216055371867769432009-06-02T20:04:00.000-07:002009-06-06T17:50:50.317-07:00Tuesday 2nd June.Brooklyn, New York City. By the power of Facebook I have arranged a sub-let. Guy finds me at Lula Bean, opposite his apartment building on Grand Street. It's on the fourth floor - a 'walk up'. He shows me round the apartment. There are pictures on the walls. Guy is from Arkansas originally. He used to play basketball at college. Now he has arthritis in his knee. He shows me a Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-40647167701122252082009-06-02T20:03:00.002-07:002009-06-05T11:44:27.719-07:00Monday 1st June.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-34443186170051930692009-06-02T20:03:00.001-07:002009-06-05T11:44:16.638-07:00Sunday 31st May.Left: turning 31. Right: I have no idea who this guy is.
Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-77707156644733725662009-06-02T20:02:00.003-07:002009-06-05T11:43:43.445-07:00Saturday 30th May.
Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-57460372474654459832009-06-02T20:02:00.001-07:002009-06-05T11:43:33.365-07:00Friday 29th May.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-44086323906544270522009-06-02T20:01:00.003-07:002009-06-04T20:46:01.540-07:00Thursday 28th May.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-71750844871568060502009-06-02T20:01:00.001-07:002009-06-17T16:15:59.525-07:00Wednesday 27th May.I stay at the Blackwell Hotel, on campus. I go for a run. I throw a Frisbee around in the dark with some students. It is very warm. In the morning I join Leigh, another of the Case Managers, on a trip to a community project a few streets off campus: the Godman Guild, where Columbus residents can get, among other things, IT classes for $5 a throw. Leigh plans to see one of her Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-54125592519801464232009-05-29T20:07:00.000-07:002009-06-17T16:10:14.373-07:00Tuesday 26th May.Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus, Ohio. The biggest campus in the United States. Some people tell me there are 50,000 students, some say 70,000. The town is consumed, with every house for streets around being rented out to accommodate the legions. The faculty includes every subject you can imagine. The sports stadium has 90,000 seats. Apparently they get filled pretty often.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-86022583946581854692009-05-29T19:42:00.000-07:002009-06-01T13:45:35.286-07:00Monday 25th May.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-35646221929922949632009-05-29T19:06:00.000-07:002009-06-01T13:40:53.699-07:00Sunday 24th May.Galaxy Hut, Arlington VA. The Sons of Guns. They are very bad. The vocalist only makes one noise, which is somewhere between yelling and clearing his throat, and still manages to sound off key with his backing singer. It's weird. It's a mess. He really ruins it for everybody. The audience clap politely but I feel bad for the rest of the band. I feel like probably the lead singer Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-76673135199105937722009-05-29T15:48:00.000-07:002009-06-01T13:39:49.067-07:00Saturday 23rd May.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-36500806502571110892009-05-26T21:19:00.000-07:002009-06-01T13:31:50.365-07:00Friday 22nd May.2:20pm. I am late for my meeting with Edgar Cahn. I am relying on him being nice enough to forgive me. Time is, after all, quite precious to Edgar. In a number of ways. He is credited with inventing the concept of Timebanking and the alternative currency, Timedollars, during the 1980s - both of which are tools for the revaluing of time, and the revaluing of people. He has spent a Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-43411361937716780082009-05-22T10:07:00.001-07:002009-05-30T08:56:38.410-07:00Thursday 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 Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-53522954100182786672009-05-21T22:32:00.000-07:002009-06-07T14:37:31.332-07:00Wednesday 20th May.Bob works with his fiancé, Julie, here in Charlottesville and around Virginia State. They work in Inclusive Design. At the moment they're involved in a project for senior citizens - an intergenerational venue designed to get older people and younger people together. Bob and Julie have been on a tour of similar projects in Europe. Bob tells me how senior citizens in the US are Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-66976904960986219552009-05-21T22:02:00.000-07:002009-05-22T09:04:51.194-07:00Tuesday 18th May.Monticello ('little mountain' in Italian) was the Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson designed the house himself, building, remodeling and extending it over the course of his lifetime with the help of local craftsmen and a workforce of slaves. The site plans of the house look like the Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-37042407998330179282009-05-18T15:43:00.000-07:002009-05-18T20:47:49.605-07:00Monday 18th May.As a non-driver I find myself a member of an excluded minority in the United States of America. Take the example of Pasadena, Maryland. When I go to DC later this week I will be staying with a friend in Clarendon, Arlington, a suburb of Washington. There is a project in Pasadena called Partners in Care, a system of supports for senior citizens based on Timebanking, helping them toBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-80077270040858079832009-05-18T15:32:00.000-07:002009-05-18T15:43:23.206-07:00Sunday 17th May.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-13092782668244541582009-05-17T06:33:00.000-07:002009-05-17T09:25:24.665-07:00Saturday 16th May.Devon lives across the street. He wears his Jason mask. He's watched Friday the 13th. He's watched Nightmare on Elm St. He's watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He says he isn't scared.Gregory lives next door. When it rains he hunts for nightcrawlers to take fishing. He picks through the lawn at the front of his grandmother's house. He puts the worms in a plant pot on the porch.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-35860101741633333402009-05-17T06:28:00.000-07:002009-05-17T19:37:02.620-07:00Friday 15th May.The 'California Look', courtesy of Clarence. The 'stache had to go. Sorry Clarence.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-82679215587740026262009-05-16T10:47:00.000-07:002009-05-17T09:29:33.467-07:00Thursday 13th May.Richmond VA. Millhouse Clubhouse. Frank gives me a guided tour. They've just moved premises and he hasn't worked out where everything is yet, but he knows it when he sees it. He tells me about his daughter, who is about to start college. He points out former and current members in the photographs on the reception wall. He seems to know people well.At lunch time I tell Al (Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-25223085137422495032009-05-15T11:28:00.000-07:002009-05-17T05:28:46.747-07:00Wednesday 13th May.James is an E7, a Platoon Sergeant in the National Guard Infantry. He signed up over twenty years ago when he was just 17. Most of the time the National Guard don't get called up, but that changed with Iraq. James has been on many tours of duty, spending the best part of the last three years away from home. He has a wife and three children here in Virginia. When I first meet Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-43226301608219827012009-05-15T07:20:00.000-07:002009-05-15T08:35:22.540-07:00Tuesday 12th May.I arrive at Innisfree entirely unannounced and with little knowledge of its mission or its workings. The day is warm and still. I walk into a cabin with the word 'Office' over the door and there is silence inside. I put my notebook down on the table beyond the french windows and wash my hands in the sink. I walk through to the next room and knock on a door. A lady gets up from Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-18716687944744201832009-05-11T20:07:00.000-07:002009-05-12T20:13:06.616-07:00Monday 11th May.It begins with what are here called 'curb cuts': the shallow concrete ramps installed at intervals so that people in wheelchairs can access the pavement (or 'sidewalk'). These innovations were pioneered by the disability rights activist Ed Roberts during the 1970s in, guess where, Berkeley, California. Since the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), all pavements in the US Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-58524748433369946362009-05-11T08:33:00.000-07:002009-05-12T20:11:47.029-07:00Sunday 10th May.I meet a guy called Jon who's studying energy efficiency at Berkeley. Another California connection of my cousins'. He says people aren't reacting to news about climate change. He says we have a few years to correct our behaviour, but not very long. 'After that we're f***ed.' There are too many unknowns to be taking risks. There are feedback effects, thresholds which, once crossedBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-4479512623193753842009-05-11T08:13:00.001-07:002009-05-11T08:32:03.306-07:00Saturday 9th May.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-53028651187748975552009-05-08T14:05:00.000-07:002009-05-11T19:58:53.269-07:00Friday 8th May.During one of the many interesting conversations I've had in the last few days, the following distinction was drawn to my attention:The Civil Rights model of change: in which individuals must provoke change through litigation, by example, by setting precedent, generalisable to wider policy only on the occasion of legal proof (bottom up).The Social Justice model of change: in which Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-46213701944215010312009-05-08T05:26:00.000-07:002009-05-09T11:15:12.557-07:00Friday 8th May. A guy at the basketball hoop last night with his little son, no more than four years old.Son: Shot it, shot it!Father: You mean shoot it? Shoot it. That's the imperative.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-91877127819404168672009-05-07T19:48:00.000-07:002009-05-10T08:02:16.068-07:00Thursday 6th May.There is a girl called Jessica staying in the apartment - a friend of James' fiancee, Shanti. She's a chef but has has more recently been studying alternative therapies, with an interest in going to school for psychology. She knows what I'm doing here. We talk about her ex. She says he had these pains in his throat. Terrible stabbing pains in his neck and head. He was diagnosed Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-60545586439970698812009-05-06T18:08:00.000-07:002009-05-08T05:26:22.824-07:00Wednesday 5th May 2009.Leigh picks me up at 8:30am and we drive out to the city of Roanoke, about two hours south, to visit the Phoenix Star Clubhouse. On the way I relate a story cousin James told me the night before. He was entering a car park, about to attend a meeting here in Charlottesville. He recognised the guy operating the barrier. He had been at high school with him. He spoke to the guyBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-51275990303101964192009-05-05T12:26:00.000-07:002009-05-07T08:28:59.319-07:00Tuesday 5th May.Wade tells me the Clubhouse isn't so much about socailisation, it's a learning experience. He's not college educated, he says, but to him the Clubhouse is like a college education. 'I've learned things from people here. I've learned things from John. John has seizures, I have seizures.' He got his injury falling off a rock at the age of eight while in Korea with his family. His Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-81515112739991653112009-05-04T12:27:00.001-07:002009-05-05T20:22:01.303-07:00Monday 4th May.I go back to the Clubhouse.I really had the big question answered already, on Friday afternoon when I came in first. When Leigh talked about the criteria for membership and said: 'You have to want to be here.' I poked a little further and she elaborated. Yes: the point of the Clubhouse is that it's about people who can consciously choose to attend, who know where they are and why Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-10264677321649491732009-05-04T05:03:00.000-07:002009-05-04T05:31:55.488-07:00Sunday 3rd May. I write an email to Larry Schutz, the director of the mentoring programme in Florida that I've penciled in for a May visit. I ask him whenabouts would be good, now that I'm here in Virginia. In his reply he tells me his programme has 'collapsed' and that he's moving to California to take up another job. He says something about a 'bankrupt state treasury', some problems with the Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-32776988434922791222009-05-02T09:24:00.001-07:002009-05-03T12:25:47.221-07:00Saturday 2nd May. There is a bird here called a Cat Bird. It makes a noise just like a kitten calling its mother. At dawn, when it joins in with the other screw-ball bird I filmed yesterday, the courtyard sounds absurd, like some idiotic pet shop.Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-43319323238823873622009-05-02T03:33:00.000-07:002009-05-03T12:37:12.892-07:00Friday 1st May (evening). As well as the re-bricking, Swine Flu comes up a lot. James says it isn't Swine Flu, it's Influensza H1N1. There are jokes about catching it off mosquitos, about how pigeons can carry it, but if that's the case then isn't it Bird Flu? About the stew my dad used to make, with pigeon and pork and rabbit whatever else came along. Can you get Rabbit Flu?We go out to Main Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-76922283628093775572009-05-01T13:18:00.000-07:002009-05-02T04:43:09.780-07:00Friday 1st May. Cousin James is studying medicine at the University of Virginia. At his apartment he has some books on consciousness and the brain, some I've read, some I haven't. We talk about neurology a bit. We talk about Bill Murray's character in Wes Anderson's film The Royal Tennenbaums, the bearded neurologist who spends his time developing his diagnosis of a boy who with a collection of Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-44437396999377341402009-05-01T07:37:00.001-07:002009-05-02T04:43:31.328-07:00Thursday 30th April. I wouldn't normally do this. It's embarrassing. There are people around and I am wearing a rucksack. I do it quickly. In the name of journalism. The same building (in the middle) from much further away. I am on the 2:15pm 19 Crescent from New York Penn Station to Charlottesville, Virginia. It's a six hour trip that takes in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, and Washington Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-50517556426440517732009-04-30T06:59:00.000-07:002009-05-02T20:25:24.073-07:00Wednesday 29th April. Before departure. I leave it a bit late with the packing.On the plane they have a water dispenser with these little blue conical plastic cups. I watch Milk, the Gus Van Sant film about Harvey Milk, the San Francisco District Supervisor who campaigned for gay rights and was murdered in 1978. The film features a voiceover by Sean Penn, who plays Milk. Towards the end of the Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-64317940199029378422009-03-12T05:58:00.000-07:002009-07-11T02:36:34.484-07:00THE PLACESVIRGINIAis home to the greatest number of Brain Injury Clubhouses of any state in America. The Clubhouse is a user-led model first developed in mental health settings. The idea behind it is that people with difficulties of whatever kind should be put in the driving seat, supported to run their own programme of services with a view to getting along in their lives. Clubhouses, as far as I'm aware, Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-22968715005695531382009-03-11T04:27:00.000-07:002009-03-21T12:30:11.569-07:00INTRODUCTIONHi. This is a weblog following a journey from England to the United States, visiting a series of programmes for the rehabilitation of people with acquired brain injury - that is, people who've had accidents or illnesses causing injury to their brains.You can read more about me, about the trip, and how it started, in the other sections of this blog, listed to the right.If you are hoping to follow Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-43266011337490710122009-03-10T15:10:00.000-07:002009-03-18T03:54:43.787-07:00THE BRAINSTARTING ASSUMPTIONS1. There is no cure for brain injury. At present, brain surgery and drugs are used to prevent damage, or lessen its impact. There is no putting back lost tissue. Some regrowth can occur naturally, but this isn't extensive. (More: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?indexed=google&rid=neurosci.section.1740)2. The concept of 'recovery' can be confusing in the context of Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-8948122639472473712009-03-10T15:00:00.000-07:002009-03-18T03:54:43.787-07:00THE UNDERTAKING1. To make a tour of brain injury rehabilitation programmes in the United States, deliberately choosing those that put forward a range of distinctive and successful approaches to the problems presented. To see programmes that are different from one another, but still comparably successful.2. To learn from these programmes; to understand their overt aims and underlying principles; to discover Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-54470744952350370122009-03-10T14:16:00.000-07:002009-03-18T03:54:43.788-07:00THE MONEYLast year I applied to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for one of their Travelling Fellowhips, under the category of Rehabilitation of Traumatic Injuries. The trust provides something like 100 grants per year to people in the UK, across the arts, technology and sciences, and many more internationally.During the 2nd World War, my grandfather, John Platts-Mills, was employed by Churchill to Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-82148670778369643862009-03-10T13:46:00.000-07:002009-03-30T13:45:06.396-07:00WHO I AMI am Ben.I live in London, the capital of the UK. I'm employed by an organisation called Headway East London (or HEL) (http://www.headwayeastlondon.org/), where I work with people who've had injuries to their brains - usually through accident, assault or illness. People who've been hurt in road traffic accidents, people who've been hit over the head, people who have had infections or strokes. HELBen Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8620999753513609275.post-8236938098030697882009-03-03T20:04:00.000-08:002009-03-19T02:16:24.279-07:00THE PLAN(roughly)29th April - fly to New York City, spend a night there (where? with whom?)30th April - catch the train to Charlottesville, Virginia, where my cousins live. I'll be passing through Philadelphia, Washington DC on the way.May - visit three Clubhouses in virginia. These are: Highstreet Clubhouse, Charlottesville http://www.vanc.org/; Phoenix Star Clubhouse, Roanoke http://Ben Platts-Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05115441779919126203noreply@blogger.com0