Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre

CONSTRUCTION work is past the halfway mark on a centre of excellence in Llanelli to help people who have sustained a brain injury.

Building work started in April on the £3.2m project, which will create up to 60 jobs, and which is on schedule to be completed next spring.

The residential centre is being developed by the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust (BIRT), a national charity that helps people regain the skills lost as a result of a road accident, stroke, assault or illness. The Trust specialises in helping people who have a problem with understanding, socialising and behaviour as well as physical problems.

The Llanelli project, which will be the first of its kind in Wales, is designed to enable service users to live closer to their families and local community while they are undergoing rehabilitation.

Carmarthenshire County Council Leader Cllr Kevin Madge and executive board member for regeneration and leisure Cllr Meryl Gravell visited the site of the new centre at Delta Lakes.

They were shown around the site, where the buildings are already well under way, and were able to get an idea of what the finished centre would look like.

Brad Fisher, construction manager with contractor Castle Oak said: “Most of our workers are local and we are using local South Wales companies for carpentry, bricklaying scaffolding, security, and so on. They are a great workforce.”

Cllr Meryl Gravell said: “I’m very impressed by the good progress being made on this centre. It is good news for people needing rehabilitation after brain injuries, who will derive great benefit from the treatment and the opportunity to be reintegrated back into the community.

“The centre is also good news for the area in that it is providing employment during the construction work as well as up to 60 jobs when it opens its doors to patients.”

Cllr Kevin Madge said: “I welcome the opportunity to see how the new BIRT centre is taking shape. I’m pleased that so many workers and companies from the region are being employed on site. It shows the skills that we have available in the area.

“It is very exciting to see the progress on what will be a very impressive facility doing valuable work to rehabilitate people after brain injuries.”

BIRT helps people with a range of programmes that are aimed at the needs of people at different stages after their injury from initial assessment and rehabilitation, to community-based or long term residential support.

BIRT’s rehabilitation process involves a multi-disciplinary team of neuropsychologists, occupational, physio and speech and language therapists and specially trained support workers.

The service will provide accommodation for 24 adults in 18 en-suite bedrooms, two single bedroom flats for people approaching the point of being able to live independently, and a further four flats within a bungalow for long term use by residents who can live semi independently but who still need the continuing support and immediate availability of the professional team.

The facility is being established within the Llanelli Waterside – a Joint Venture partnership between Carmarthenshire County Council and Welsh Government – and forms part of the Delta Lakes development zone.

The Director of BIRT, Susan Munroe, said: “We hope this new centre will make a real difference to people in Wales who have suffered a brain injury. Work on the building is progressing well and we are already recruiting for some of the senior posts. We look forward to opening in Spring 2014.”