Louise has devoted her 35+ year career to the field of brain injury and neurorehabilitation. With a background in Neurological Occupational Therapy, including Senior and Lead OT roles at the Priory, Highbank in the 1990s and responsibility for the transitional living service providing inpatient and outreach rehabilitation, Louise moved into case management in 2002, starting her business, A Chance for Life Ltd. Under her leadership, the business has grown into a highly respected provider of Case Management, Rehabilitation and Support services, serving the North of England and Scotland. Louise acquired Neurocare Physiotherapy in 2021, adding this specialist Neurological Physiotherapy service to the A Chance for Life Ltd family.
Louise has a passion for the great outdoors and a firm belief in the therapeutic value of spending time in nature. In her personal life, this is reflected in her love of gardening, caring for her animals, walking, wild swimming or spending time on the Dunkirk Little Ship she and her partner have lovingly restored. Professionally, Louise has taken this passion as the inspiration for Owl Barn – an innovative new service which offers OT-led programmes basing therapy around activities such as horticulture, animal husbandry and crafting, delivered from a beautifully adapted stone barn set in 6 acres of the Lake District National Park.
Louise’s enthusiasm for collaboration, combined with a feeling of responsibility to use her skills and resources to help improve the lives of people affected by serious injury has led her to be an active participant in the brain injury community. She is a member of Headway North Cumbria, served on the Northern Acquired Brain Injury Forum committee for many years and, prior to taking on the role of Chair, served on the BABICM Council from 2018 to 2024.
Helen has been a case manager at Head First for the past five years. Prior to this, she worked as a phsysiotherapist within the NHS brain injury services. She has had a varied caseload of complex ABI clients, both pre and post litigation and has a good and clear understanding of both the clients needs and the role of the case manager. She has implemented community rehab programmes and worked well within the team, assessing, managing, co ordinating, facilitating, advocating, and providing high quality documentation as required to ensure the best outcome for her clients. She is very personable and well-liked by her peers and is a valued member of both our team and the other teams with whom she works. She is practising in line with the BABICM competencies and aims to complete her advanced membership this year. She would be an excellent addition to the council and would contribute sharing ideas and her knowledge of best practice.
Helen is a keen sports woman and is completing the London Marathon in aid of the National Brain Appeal. She has completed many sporting adventure challenges in aid of charities and including some with clients. In her spare time, she volunteers for the Army Cadets and prior to becoming a physiotherapist, she was involved in project management and engineering in Africa. She has many different skills that she has been able to transfer, complimenting her skills as a case manager.
Ben is an OT by training, and he started working with adults with brain injury in Sydney, Australia, in 1998. He started working in the case management field in Sydney in 2000. Ben moved to the UK in 2005 and since then has been employed by the NHS at the RNRU – Homerton Hospital in Hackney London, and then a case management company in Suffolk, England in 2007. He incorporated Ben Holden Ltd, a specialist case management company for adults and children, also based in Suffolk, in 2009. Over the last four years, Ben has been transitioning from being mainly a case manager to now mainly being a Managing Director of a large and growing case management company. Ben was previously involved with the BABICM council and various subgroups from around 2009-2011 and he would be interested to return and help the profession develop and flourish.
Andrew is the Director at AKA Case Management Ltd and was previously a Director and Treasurer of BABICM. He has worked with clients with brain injury and complex needs since 2006. His background is in Psychology and he has over 20 years experience in training and lecturing.
Andrew has worked in both England and Australia and has specialised in working with clients in the community who exhibit challenging behaviour to extreme challenging. His experience includes working with individuals who have endured trauma and abuse, brain injury, mental health challenges and multiple diagnoses.
Andrew has a passion for Motivational Interviewing (MI), delivering training in MI in England and Australia. He also has experience in delivering training in ABI, positive behaviour support, problematic sexual behaviour and systemic dialectical behaviour therapy.
Jennifer Whittall is a very experienced Case Manager, specialising in SCI, ABI, and more often than not combined presentation of a complex nature.
Jennifer qualified in 1982 and has worked in the Medico-Legal / Case Management roles within the sector for over 26 years.
Jennifer is a qualified Physiotherapist who prepares Expert Witness Report for Care, Physiotherapy and rehabilitation. Prior to this, Jennifer was a Senior Physiotherapist and then Manager of the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries.
As Director of Jennifer M Whittall Ltd, Jennifer leads a team of Specialist Associates. The company is CQC registered.
It is a small team delivering a high standard of client focussed and personalised service and applying for this nomination Jenny would hope to bring pragmatic input to the organisation of the day to day challenges of working in the sector; with all the demands placed upon Case Managers and how the organisation can support them with all the changes being offered in the field.
The Ethos of Jennifer M Whittall, personally as well as for her team, is to facilitate the clients to lead a fulling lifestyle, not just based on care alone, but also lifestyle, activities and always seeking for opportunities for the clients to look into and “have a go”.
Jennifer has a good network with many individuals and rehabilitation teams.
Jennifer is well known in the field of Case Managers and Experts as well as the Midland Centre for spinal injuries.