Specialist assessment and rehabilitation for people who are experiencing problems with everyday activities as a result of neurological damage.
Are you struggling with any of these activities?
- DECISION MAKING
- DISTANCE / DEPTH
- DRESSING
- DRIVING
- EVERYTHING
- CONCENTRATING
- HOUSEHOLD TASKS
- PLANNING
- REMEMBERING
- LEARNING
- PROBLEM SOLVING
Decision Making
The ability to make decisions can be affected for a number of reasons but can have debilitating consequences and a knock-on effect on self esteem.
Emma will talk to you about the difficulties you are experiencing and, if necessary, will complete the BADS to ascertain, more specifically, the nature of the problem. She will then work with you on devising strategies to help overcome the difficulties.
Mis-judging distances / depths
Sometimes, after experiencing head injury or neurological trauma, people describe themselves as being ‘clumsy’.
If you find that you are often knocking things over, banging things down surprisingly hard, or brushing past people a little too closely, Emma will talk to you and find out what type of problems you are experiencing.
She is likely to suggest using the DTVP-A, an assessment that really focuses on visual-perceptual and visual-motor abilities. Emma will be able to use the information gleaned during the assessment to help you develop some useful strategies to avoid these difficulties impacting heavily on your day to day life.
Dressing
Sometimes, after experiencing neurological trauma, people find it hard to get dressed and manage their personal care. There are many, many reasons for this. Emma will help you work through your difficulties using a combination of discussion and observation to highlight specific problems together with their root causes. She will then work with you to help re-gain maximum independence as quickly as possible.
Emma may choose to use an AMPS assessment which enables her to monitor your progress to ensure her treatment plan is meeting your needs.
Driving
Sometimes, after neurological trauma, you may be worried that your driving skills have been affected.
Emma will talk to you about your concerns and, if appropriate, will complete the Rookwood Driving Assessment with you. This assessment provides a good indication of fitness to drive.
If tests indicate that there are concerns, Emma can help you access on-road testing and ensure the correct processes are followed both to maximize your ability to drive but also to ensure maximum safety.
Everything
Sometimes, after neurological trauma, people find it hard to break down their problems into specific components, feeling simply as if ‘everything’ has changed and become a little more difficult.
Emma can talk to you and your family and help you break the problems down. She may use an AMPS assessment which entails simply watching you perform an activity of your choosing. This allows her to record her observations using a specialised format that helps to locate specific problem areas. It also provides an extremely useful measure of your progress over time.
Concentrating
Concentration and attention are often affected by neurological trauma and problems in this area can, of course, impact heavily on lots of other areas of function.
Emma will talk to you to find out more about the nature of the problem you are experiencing. She may suggest using the Test of Everyday Attention to help identify different patterns in your attention. Once established, Emma will provide you with exercises to improve your concentration or strategies to help you cope with the difficulties you are experiencing.
Socialising
People frequently report difficulties either maintaining friendships or making new friends after a brain injury.
Emma will talk to you about the difficulties you are facing when socialising and may suggest using the The Awareness of Social Inference test to help identify and understand the root of the difficulties. She will then provide you with exercises aimed at improving these skills or strategies to help you cope.
If necessary, Emma will accompany you out socially and help you work through your difficulties, liaising (with your consent) with friends, family, or colleagues to ascertain the exact nature of the problems.
Household Tasks
Sometimes, after experiencing neurological dysfunction, you may find it hard to manage domestic tasks such as shopping, cooking, laundry etc. Simple as they sound, all of these tasks can be extremely cognitively demanding.
Using a combination of formal and informal assessment and observation, Emma will help identify the problems and their root cause. She will then help develop a treatment programme designed to help you regain maximum independence as quickly as possible.
Emma may choose to use an AMPS assessment which enables her to monitor your progress to ensure her treatment plan is meeting your needs.
Planning, organising, prioritising
Sometimes after a brain injury people experience real problems organising and planning even the most simple of tasks.
Emma will talk to you about the specific nature of your problems. She is likely to suggest using the BADS tool to help look at some specific cognitive functions. Together you will be able to work out which areas of cognition are affecting your day to day function, and then look at strategies and plans to help understand how to overcome them.
Remembering
Memory can be affected for any number of reasons and can cause significant distress. Emma will talk to you about the nature of your memory problem and may suggest completing the Rivermead Memory Test 3 or the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test. These assessments have been designed to really look at which specific components of memory might be affected.
After the assessment, Emma will help you to consider and trial a variety of memory aids and strategies designed specifically to work with your personally identified problems.
If you are worried that your memory is worsening over time, Emma can re-assess using the same tool and compare the scores, giving you an objective measure as feedback.
Learning
Sometimes after a head injury or other neurological damage, people describe real difficulties in learning new information. Emma may use the LOTCA to ascertain where the messages are being ‘lost’ and to look at whether there is the capacity for you to learn new information if it is represented in different formats.
If this is affecting you at school or college, Emma can visit your place of learning and talk with teachers and tutors to help maximise learning potential.
Problem solving
Problem solving skills can be affected after a brain injury. Problem solving skills allow us to adjust our behaviour and respond effectively to new or challenging situations.
Emma will talk to you about the specific nature of your problems and is likely to suggest using the BADS tool. This looks at some specific cognitive functions, so that together you can work out which areas of cognition are affecting you on a daily basis. You will then look at strategies and programmes to help you to understand how to overcome them.