Online communities

Welcome to Headway's online communities. Through our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and HealthUnlocked discussion forum, we give you the chance to connect online with other people who are affected by brain injury. The community is primarily for people with a brain injury, their family and carers, but anyone is welcome to join in the conversation.

You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, connect with us on Instagram or watch us on YouTube.

HealthUnlocked community

"This has been the first day I've been involved in the forum and I have to say thank you. For a long time I have felt isolated and coping with everything on my own. But today I have chatted with some great people."

- angelfish28, HealthUnlocked member

On the Headway HealthUnlocked community, you can:

  • Discuss: In the discussion forum, you can post a new question, reply to someone else's question query or just read through the forum to find information that may help you.
  • Share: Use the community's blogging area to share your experiences of brain injury, and support others by commenting on their blogs.
  • Engage: Help keep the community active by taking part in our polls, reading Headway's blogs and commenting on other posts.

You can talk about anything related to brain injury - from symptoms and rehabilitation to welfare benefits and local services - and get answers and support from people who have been through similar situations.

Click here to visit the Headway HealthUnlocked community.

Community safety

Content on the Headway HealthUnlocked community does not replace the relationship between you and your doctors or other healthcare professionals, or the advice you receive from them. It also does not replace our free helpline service, which offers an opportunity to discuss your concerns in confidence with our trained staff.

The comments and information placed in this community are purely the views of the members and are not those of Headway - the brain injury association.

The mention in the community of any products, alternative/complimentary therapies or treatments does not constitute a professional recommendations from Headway - the brain injury association.

Guidelines

  • Join in! To help keep the community active, we encourage users to post blogs and questions, and comment on other peoples' posts. However, it's also fine if you'd rather just read other posts on the site.
  • Respect other community members. In other words, be nice! It's OK to have a debate and share opinions on our community, but make sure you're always polite and don't insult, intimidate or harass people.
  • Be aware - Headway's community is a public forum! You are responsible for what you post on our site. You must not post anything illegal or offensive.
  • Stay safe. We want you to feel safe when talking about your experiences of brain injury on our community. To ensure this, please don't give out your personal details such as address and phone number. Don't talk about your daily movements, such as where you'll be at a specific time and date. Be careful when discussing details of family and friends - they may not want their personal stories online. Do not respond to, and immediately report, any posts or private messages that ask for personal details or money.
  • Don't name and shame. While it's OK to talk about experiences you've had, be they good or bad, we ask that members don't dedicate posts to naming and shaming services or individuals.
  • Don't advertise products or services. It's fine to discuss your experiences of particular products and services, but the Headway community is for personal use and must not be used for commercial purposes to advertise products and services. This includes text on your profile page, which should not include the name and/or details of the company you work for.
  • Don't post links to research studies/surveys. Headway receives a high volume of requests to post details of brain injury research. Please contact us first to discuss how we can help.
  • Report abuse. Use the Report link next to any posts you think are inappropriate and one of the moderators from HealthUnlocked or Headway will review it and, if necessary, remove it.
  • Respect copyright. You are welcome to upload images to our blogs, but make sure you have the permission of the original creator and/or the people who appear in the image before doing so. If you copy text from another source, make sure you say where you got it from.
  • Don't post conspiracy theories. This forum is for discussion of brain injury and the issues that may arise from it. While you are of course entitled to your opinion, it is not a place to discuss unfounded and un-evidenced conspiracy theories, and all such posts will be removed. We recommend checking all online information with a professional source such as your doctor, the NHS or fact-checking websites.

Further guidance

We suggest that you read through the terms of use and house rules on the HealthUnlocked website.

Click the link below for more guidance on staying safe online.

Guidance for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

If you are not currently a member of Facebook or Twitter, you will need to create your own profile before you can join our page. In YouTube, you will need to create an account to subscribe to our videos. Headway UK strongly urges people thinking of joining any of these sites to carefully consider the privacy settings. Both the sites have a number of controls to allow users to dictate how much personal information is available to can be seen by other users. These can be accessed through the Settings or Account link at the top of your Facebook, Twitter or YouTube page. If you are in any doubt, please seek advice.

My story

"HealthUnlocked is absolutely amazing"

"The online support forum, HealthUnlocked, has been absolutely amazing. I cried for an hour while reading the stories, and it provided a great platform to ask questions and have an non-judgemental conversation about brain injury."

Read story