Brain in Hand - any experience of it here?

Thanks Bunny - appreciate the links!

I'm not short of list making apps/tools, so would want it to be more than that, which it hopefully is.

I'll sign up to one of the training event - see what it does - I guess it might suit some more that others

The personal coaching is a fairly small part of it, and is mostly so you can use the app effectively. 
I found mine very helpful with coming up with plans for the unexpected. 

No good for me then and personal coaching! The idea fills me with horror, possibly because my ex husband trained as one after we split and the thought of being hassled by someone like him, would have me murderous in seconds. I guess you'd have to have goals and ambitions to make use of it, not me at all.

Thanks Bunny. £175 per month is a lot to consider.

ArchaeC said:

I would like to know more about it.

You can learn more here - as I mentioned below, it’s more than just an app. It’s a service that combines digital tools, personal coaching, and access to on-demand personal support at any time:

Brain in Hand

They also advertise regular live demonstrations via Zoom. That being said, the one that I waited a few weeks to attend turned out to not be a live demo after all. They didn’t cover anything that I hadn’t already learned via the website, whereas I really wanted to see it in action, so I was left feeling very disappointed. I think that might have been an exception rather than the norm.

I’d likely have pay for it privately (£175 per month, with a three month minimum initial commitment). So that’s not something I’m willing to enter into lightly!

You could sign up for the next demo here, if you’d like:

Brain in Hand live demonstration (Zoom)

It’s a service that combines digital tools, personal coaching, and access to on-demand personal support at any time:

Brain in Hand

It is indeed. It’s an app.

I haven’t experience of it, and I probably wouldn’t need it as I am retired now and lead a quiet life. I think it would have been useful for me at at one time and I would like to know more about it.

I have one reservation, which isn’t to take away from the functionality and purpose of the app. Would it make my brain become slower than it already is at times?  The adage ‘use it or lose it’ springs to mind. I used to know loads of telephone numbers before I put them in my iCloud address book, but now I wouldn’t know many telephone numbers if my phone wasn’t to hand.  

I understand Brain In Hand makes the difference between someone being able to function or not in daily life and I have heard good reports of it.

Is it a technological doodah? If it is then with my massive skills at breaking tech I'd probably end up with my brain being dropped on the floor and stepped in!

Hi. I saw them at the Autism Show (I went to the one in London in 2023) - they are a sponsor and have a stand there, if you are interested. I think you can get them with some types of funding. I lloked at them for my son with his DSA funding. 

I just saw this on facebook - thought I'd look here as not seen it mentioned in the 6 months since joining.

Looked interesting when I looked quickly but reasonably expensive too - well hopefully you can get it funded 

Thanks! :-) 

Im glad to hear that it is useful. I got mine via access to work but my employer so far in over 8 months has failed to provide it for me.

I look forward to using it if and when I get it!

My posts were being marked as spam at the time and required moderating, so it's likely it wasn't here when you replied. But please don't worry, no apology required. 

I love your profile picture by the way!

Wow, Fibonacci Squid! That is really useful information. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this.

I have brain in hand through DSA (disabled student allowance) and I love it.  It is very specifically designed for autism and in my experience does it very well.

I've given a good review on it before so I'll paste that below and then add anything else I've thought about since then:

I use brain in hand!!!!!! I love it!

I love it personally, for a variety of reasons, let me list them below, and share my experiences where I have used them practically:

Part of brain in hand is organisation, so you make a calendar ( you can connect an existing google calendar, outlook calendar etc, or just use the software on the website) and the individual events get tasks and problems put under them. And you can put in problems connected to a task.

So for example, for a teams call I have various problems like 'internet out', 'unable to join call', forget call'. And then within those problems I put solutions. So under 'forget about call' is 'send apology email', 'ask to reschedule', 'ask for recording'. And then what that mainly means is A. I get reminders about tasks, and B. when something goes wrong, I don't have to panic about what to do, because it's already there. 

So, when have I used this feature. Well, missing meetings for a start. Also a big one was train journeys. I find train journeys immensely difficult. They're sensorily overwhelming and then they go wrong. In this particular case one of my trains had been cancelled. I was already on the verge of a shutdown. It was very bad. But in my brain in hand app the pre made travel section has a solution which has the link to the national network website, where I could instantly find another train. It saved a meltdown, end of story. Because I didn't have to think.

And then there are those moments where the preprepared stuff doesn't work out, and you have to ask for help. I've used that twice I think. Once was about a phone call where I just couldn't, and they walked me through other options so I didn't have to do it right then and could wait until I had someone around to help me in person. The other was a moment where everything had gone wrong, and they helped me break it down until I could find a solution.

You also get someone that walks you through using it to its upmost and also helps you make goals and stuff and plans to work towards them that you have appointments with a few times a year. 

Cool. That covers a lot. 

Things I've used it for since: 

Airplane, with lots of contingencies including a link to a document explaining I was having a shutdown to a member of staff. 

Organising packing lists for some activities

They've improved the notification system, so I can now do several notifications. E.g. one for getting brain ready, one for getting up and putting things in bag etc and one for leaving, for a specific appointment.

I'm sure there are others too

It is expensive privately, I guess that is partly paying for the 24/7 support if you need it. But it's really helped my independence in managing difficult situations. I'm not sure what I will do when I eventually come off of DSA. Some organisations occupational health will also pay for it. And some councils if you are under social care will contribute. So there are other funding sources available.

Feel free to ask questions about brain in hand, I use it every day and find it often makes a real difference 

I like that image of the Ood

Haha the first thought that went through my mind too!

Apologies by the way to Stranger - for some reason I didn't see your reply when I posted my mine, but I certainly wasn't using 'more informed...' to refer contrastively to anyone but myself. 

I must admit I'd never heard of this, in fact the first thing that phrase conjured in my head was the Ood from Doctor Who. (I guess we are in some ways all the ood now, I'm sure our phones will be grafted on before too long!) 

More seriously, thanks for flagging the term as I've now - via Googling - learned something. 

And hopefully someone more informed/helpful to you will be along in a while... and in the meantime my  post can serve as a little 'bump' for your thread, so if nothing else I've done that... :-)