Liz Hardy and I attended this year's two day conference in Bristol at the Marriot Hotel. This year's theme was very much focused on emotional brain damage and how this can affect relationships and social interaction. All the plenary sessions were on the first day (Wednesday, 21 September) and very much focused on this emotional theme.
The first session was given by Professor Roger Wood from Swansea University. His talk was entitled "From neuropathology to psychopathology: understanding neurobehaviour disability as a focus for post acute rehabilitation". He talked about types of brain injury and stated that whatever the site of the injury the principal location of damage is the frontal structures. He described the four areas of the frontal lobe as having specific roles but that there is a lot of overlap between these areas. Damage in these areas are known as Frontal Lobe Syndrome and Dysexecutive function. He went on to talk about temper control and social cognition and how better knowledge of dysfunction in these areas can lead to better rehabilitation approaches. A really riveting talk and thoroughly enjoyable as well as factual and practical.
The second session was entitled "Ambiguous Loss: how uncertainty impedes caregivers' and patients' emotional recovery" . This talk was given by Professior Jeff Kreutzer, Director of Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University. Professor Jeff Kreutzer described Ambiguous Loss as the state family members find themselves in when the person who has sustained the head injury is phyiscally present but the neurobehavioural changes that have occurred make it unsettling. They commonly state that they are "married but do not have a husband" or feel as if they are "married to a stranger". He sited various books written by head injury family members explaining their journey through managing the brain injured person describing patterns of reaction and adjustment over time. He stressed the importance of professionals working with brain injured clients in facilitating the recognition of ambiguity, to educate the patient and caregiver about the general course of recovery and provide emotional support. Again good factual information with practical strategies to help patients adjust.
Dr Charles Bombardier from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle presented a talk entitled Depression after Traumatic brain injury. He talked about the cause of depression after TBI being uncertain and that it is likely to multifactorial. He stated how post TBI depression can be linked to a variety of negative outcomes, including greater cognitive impairment, poorer rehabilitation outcomes, increased functional disability, reduced participation, poorer recovery, elevated post concussive symptoms, reduced employment potential, increased care-giver burden, reduced life satisfaction and poorer health related quality of life. He went on to state the need for more research and clinical trials to improve the treatment for these patients.
Professor Huw Williams, Associate Professor from of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Wales gave a comprehensive presentation on "Neurorehabilitation and emotion: challenges to fitting into a social world" He talked about the importance of social group memberships and outcomes to be achieved through neuro-rehabilitation - to be in work, to have a range of friends, to have a family life.
The final talk of the day was given by Professor George Prigatano from Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona on Neuropsychological rehabilitation of adults and children with a history of traumatic brain injury: challanges and opportunities. In his talk he spelt out the challenges that face professionals with regards to rehabilitation of this group of people, the need for further research in treatment approaches and its effectiveness both in patient outcomes and demonstrating the long term cost effectiveness of such treatments.
On Thursday there were various workshops throughout the day. I attended How does dementia affect music processing?, Practical Approaches to effective family intervention and Development of the GUIDE prompting system. I was particularly interested in the last talk as this system uses technology to verbally prompt people through the various stages of everyday activities to enable people with cognitive problems to engage in these activities. It is particularly targeted at patients with sequencing problems. The development of this system is based on research and is in the early stages of development using computer technology with a voice recognition programme. It will be interesting to see how well it works once the system is in place.
The two day conference provided an opportunity for Liz and I to meet other professional working in the field of brain injury and we had an enjoyable evening on Wednseday at the dinner sponsored by Barclays bank.
Helen E Sheard
Consultant Occupational Therapist
Contact us now on 01244 390677 or training@thecareplan.com for information regarding our Acquired Brain Injury training course.
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