Rehabilitation Psychology
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”.
-Viktor E. Frankl
What is Rehabilitation?
Rehabilitation is defined as “a set of interventions designed to optimize functioning and reduce disability in individuals with health conditions in interaction with their environment”. Simply stated, rehabilitation helps an individual be as independent as possible in everyday activities while supporting them to overcome difficulties in any number of areas. Anybody may need rehabilitation at some point in their lives, following an injury, surgery, disease or illness, or because their functioning has declined with age.
Rehabilitation Psychology helps with emotional issues such as depression and anxiety and cognitive problems such as attention, memory, and problem solving. Pain management, communication skills and family education are commonly addressed.
Cognitive Rehabilitation is based on assessment and understanding of the person’s brain-behavior deficits.
The primary goal of cognitive rehabilitation is to reduce deficits in order to maximize daily functioning, independence and quality of life. This is achieved in a step-wise fashion by targeting: awareness-compensations-internalization-generalization.
Dr. Netto has undergone formal training in Cognitive Rehabilitation with the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and continues to seek ongoing education.
Cognitive rehabilitation is tailored to the individual’s specific level of functioning and needs. Skills are taught and practiced, and strategies are learned to improve functioning and/or compensate for remaining deficits.
Treatment may include homework exercises to continue to address different cognitive areas outside of the session and in the individual’s environment.
Cognitive rehabilitation addresses internal processes, environmental factors and application to functional activities.
Key Components of Cognitive Rehabilitation
•Patient education about cognitive strengths and weaknesses
•Clear goal setting and treatment planning
•Intervention involving the practice of functional tasks, and the use of internal and external compensatory strategies
•Ongoing evaluation and feedback
Neurorehabilitation
Helps people relearn functions lost as a result of brain injury or loss of cognitive function due to a medical illness. It addresses daily functioning, and problems related to thinking, memory, language, executive functions, behavior, relationships and emotions, to name a few.
Comprehensive-holistic neuropsychological rehabilitation is recommended to reduce cognitive and functional disability for persons with brain injury or stroke, regardless of severity or time post injury.
Cognitive Functioning involves the following areas:
Attention & Concentration
Memory
Processing Speed
Reasoning & Problem Solving
Language skills
Visual - Spatial skills