Emilia Clarke’s charity partners with Big Issue

This week Big Issue Group launched a new partnership with brain injury charity SameYou, helping brain injury survivors return to work with the support of Big Issue Recruit Job Coaches.

In a survey, conducted by Big Issue Group and SameYou, of more than 300 brain injury survivors and carers, a third of respondents felt they did not feel ready to return to their jobs post their brain injuries. And of these 53% of survivors said they had to return for financial reasons.

46% of survivors have needed to claim benefits since their brain injury. Over two-thirds (68%) of these say their benefits were not enough to cover their regular bills and expenses.

27% of brain injury survivors said that they felt pressure from an employer to return to work before they were ready. 1 in 5 survivors who returned to work rated the support they received from their employers as ‘Poor’ and over 50% of survivors had to make some changes to either their role, their employer or the hours on returning to work, as a result of their brain injury.

SameYou was founded by actor Emilia Clarke MBE and her mother, Jenny Clarke MBE, to support brain injury survivors with their recoveries. Emilia suffered two life-threatening brain haemorrhages while starring as Daenerys Targaryen in HBO series Game of Thrones. She’s been interviewed in this week’s Big Issue about the difficulties of returning to work after experiencing a brain injury.

“When you have a brain injury, because it alters your sense of self on such a dramatic level, all of the insecurities you have going into the workplace quadruple overnight,” Clarke told the Big Issue. “The first fear we all had was: ‘Oh my God, am I going to get fired? Am I going to get fired because they think I’m not capable of completing the job?’”

Emilia’s brain haemorrhages occurred between filming seasons, so only a handful of the team working on the show were told straight away and she was back at work weeks after her first brain injury. In front of thousands of people and cameras, she found herself fearing that she was dying of another brain haemorrhage because of the stress and pressure. She remembers thinking: “Well, if I’m going to die, I better die on live TV.”

The new partnership between SameYou and the Big Issue Group aims to help survivors like Emilia cope with the often overwhelming prospective of returning to work after their brain injury. 61% of respondents to their survey said they would have benefitted from a Job Coach to ease their return to work.

Big Issue Recruit says it supports people who face barriers to work with finding sustainable employment, and this partnership will expand this support to brain injury survivors and their carers. Individuals will work one-to-one with expert job coaches to get back to work. Big Issue Recruit works with candidates, pre, during and post-employment to ensure this employment is truly sustainable.

Jenny Clarke MBE, CEO and co-founder of SameYou, said: “This research clearly highlights the many complex challenges that people who have experienced a brain injury face when going back to work. Survivors have reported pressures to return before they’re ready, as well as problems with financial difficulties, benefits and even an increased risk of homelessness.

“We’re proud to be partnering with Big Issue Recruit, supporting brain injury survivors and their carers, with their return to work by building their confidence and finding the right employment pathways for them.”

Paul Cheal, CEO of the Big Issue Group, said: “There is a clear need to create more support and clear pathways for those returning to work after experiencing a brain injury.

“We are pleased to extend the work of Big Issue Recruit, to a wider group of people who face barriers to work - brain injury survivors and carers of people who have experienced a brain injury. These are often a forgotten group of people in society.

“By partnering with SameYou, our ambition is not only to highlight the challenges that brain injury survivors encounter in returning to work or finding a new role, but also to work together to bolster the support we offer candidates by adding a Job Coach to the Big Issue Recruit team to specialise in this area of need.”