North West and North Wales Back Exchange Conference

ONE DAY CONFERENCE ORGANISED BY THE NORTH WEST AND NORTH WALES BACK EXCHANGE IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE WORKING WELL TOGETHER GROUP AND NORTH WEST WALES HEALTH AND SAFETY GROUP.

The above conference took place on Wednesday, 10 April 2013, at Bangor University in Gwynedd.  It was extremely well attended and very well organised.

After the initial introductory speech by Ellen Beard, Chair of the North West and North Wales Back Exchange Group, the conference began.  The first presentation was by Lisa Fowlie, Health and Safety Adviser for Bangor University, and was entitled "Setting The Scene".

This was followed by a very good presentation from Dr Iain Lea, a qualified chiropractor and Director of North Wales Spine Clinic.  He presented considerable evidence regarding musculo skeletal injuries citing that 80% of back injuries are disc related with 20% being related to the sacro iliac joint.  There were lots of useful tips on managing back injuries including getting the right treatment as quickly as possible and not relying on pain killing medication which can often lead to chronic back problems.  He talked about core muscle stability and strength being essential in preventing back problems and also helping in recovery.  He also talked about the "10,000 paces a day rule" being a good guide as to general health and prevention of major life style illnesses such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease and urged everyone to go out and buy a pedometer!

Matthew Birtles, Senior Ergonomist, Health and Safety Laboratory, finished the morning presentations by giving an excellent talk about ergonomics in the work place stating that most cumulative back problems happen at work as that is the time when we are more likely to do the same task over and over again whereas at home we tend to carry out different tasks and therefore adopt different postures.  He explained that variation in posture is actually more important than necessarily having everything at just the right height and position as in sitting at a desk and working on a computer i.e. "The best posture is the next posture".  He also highlighted the importance of keeping joints in the neutral position as much as possible as employing forces when the joint is out of neutral is when injuries occur.

The afternoon sessions that I attended were also very good.   Julia Love, Chair of the National Back Exchange, gave a presentation on "Accidents with Hoists" and the common mistakes that staff make e.g. putting the brakes on a mobile hoist when fully hoisting someone, not having the correct sling, attaching the wrong loops to the hoist and having the client attached to the hoist in a lopsided manner.

The final presentation which I attended in the afternoon was a presentation from Sheenagh Orchard, a registered nurse and Moving and Handling Specialist.  She has done a considerable amount of work on single carer handling, a topic on which I have written another blog. 

There was another workshop in the afternoon entitled "The Heavier Person and People with Challenging Behaviour" presented by Hakan Skenhede, Sonja Conway and Mark Ripley.  Although I was unable to attend this work shop, I understand that it was well presented and offered useful information.

A number of companies attended with moving and handling equipment and lunch was provided.  The overall feedback from the attendees was very favourable.  Here's to the next one!!

Helen Sheard, Consultant Occupational Therapist

The BIRT (Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust) Conference 2011

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.