Barbara A. Wilson

This is the first book of its kind to include the personal accounts of people who have survived injury to the brain, along with professional therapists' reports of their progress through rehabilitation. The paintings and stories of survivors combine with experts' discussions of the theory and practice of brain injury rehabilitation to illustrate the ups and downs that survivors encounter in their journey from pre-injury status to insult and post-injury rehabilitation. Wilson, Winegardner and Ashworth's focus on the survivors' perspective shows how rehabilitation is an interactive process between people with brain injury, health care staff, and others, and gives the survivors the chance to tell their own stories of life before their injury, the nature of the insult, their early treatment, and subsequent rehabilitation. Presenting practical approaches to help survivors of brain injury achieve functionally relevant and meaningful goals, Life After Brain Injury: Survivors’ Stories will help all those working in rehabilitation understand the principles involved in holistic brain injury rehabilitation and how these principles, combined with theory and models, translate into clinical practice. This book will be of great interest to anyone who wishes to extend their knowledge of the latest theories and practices involved in making life more manageable for people who have suffered damage to the brain. Life After Brain Injury: Survivors’ Stories will also be essential for clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists, and anybody dealing with acquired brain injury whether they be a survivor of a brain injury themselves, a relative, a friend or a carer.

This is the first book of its kind to include the personal accounts of people who have survived injury to the brain, along with professional therapists' reports of their progress through rehabilitation. The paintings and stories of survivors combine with experts' discussions of the theory and practice of brain injury rehabilitation to illustrate the ups and downs that survivors encounter in their journey from pre-injury status to insult and post-injury rehabilitation. Wilson, Winegardner and Ashworth's focus on the survivors' perspective shows how rehabilitation is an interactive process between people with brain injury, health care staff, and others, and gives the survivors the chance to tell their own stories of life before their injury, the nature of the insult, their early treatment, and subsequent rehabilitation. Presenting practical approaches to help survivors of brain injury achieve functionally relevant and meaningful goals, Life After Brain Injury: Survivors’ Stories will help all those working in rehabilitation understand the principles involved in holistic brain injury rehabilitation and how these principles, combined with theory and models, translate into clinical practice. This book will be of great interest to anyone who wishes to extend their knowledge of the latest theories and practices involved in making life more manageable for people who have suffered damage to the brain. Life After Brain Injury: Survivors’ Stories will also be essential for clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists, and anybody dealing with acquired brain injury whether they be a survivor of a brain injury themselves, a relative, a friend or a carer.

From a well-known authority, this comprehensive yet accessible book shows how state-of-the-art research can be applied to help people with nonprogressive memory disorders improve their functioning and quality of life. Barbara Wilson describes a broad range of interventions, including compensatory aids, learning strategies, and techniques for managing associated anxiety and stress. She reviews the evidence base for each clinical strategy or tool and offers expert guidance on how to assess patients, set treatment goals, develop individualized rehabilitation programs, and conduct memory groups. The book also provides essential background knowledge on the nature and causes of memory impairment.

The aim of neuropsychological rehabilitation is to enable people with cognitive, emotional, or behavioural deficits to achieve their maximum potential in the domains of psychological, social, leisure, vocational or everyday functioning. Describing the holistic programme devised and adopted at the world famous Oliver Zangwill Centre and embracing a broad theoretical base, incorporating a variety of frameworks, theories and models, this book proposes an integrated approach to brain injury rehabilitation by an interdisciplinary team. The coverage explains the underlying principles involved, describes the group therapies employed, highlights a selection of real case examples and reviews the outcomes measured and achieved. This book is essential reading for clinical neuropsychologists, clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, neurologists, physiotherapists, social workers and nurses.

The potential of behavioural approaches for improving the lives of people with acquired brain injury is immense. Here that potential is laid out and explored with a thoroughgoing regard for clinical practice and the theoretical frameworks that underpin that practice. This book will prove an invaluable resource for clinical psychologists and the whole range of therapists working with patients suffering from acquired brain damage.

After a discussion of current theory and research findings relating to rehabilitation of brain injury, this book presents 20 case studies of adults with severe brain injuries sustained several years earlier. The causes of their brain damage include traumatic head injuries, encephalitis, stroke and hypoxia. Problems that follow such injuries including loss of self-care skills, memory impairment, language, reading, visuoperceptual and behavioural difficulities, are analysed in detail. The book describes the premorbid lifestyle of each of the 20 individuals, the onset of their brain damage, subsequent symptoms, neuropsychological assessment, rehabilitation, and long-term outcome. Most chapters include a report by the patient and/or family member, thus providing an extra dimension that helps to increase the reader's understanding of the predicaments faced by brain-injured individuals as they learn to cope with traumatic changes in lifestyle. Although improvement for most brain-injured people is slow and limited, all those described in this book made some progress after their admission to rehabilitation services. The exhaustive analysis of each case and step-by-step description of treatment will encourage professionals and other care-givers that much can be done for this severely injured group. For students of neuropsychology and rehabilitation, the book should serve as an inspiring and informative supplementary text.

Many patients with stroke, head injuries or dementia suffer severe memory problems. This book offers practical guidance to professionals and at the same time is backed up by a discussion of theory about memory systems and functioning. The second edition has been completely revised and includes a completely new chapter on self-help groups. This book should be of interest to clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, teachers, educational psychologists, psychiatrists, geriatricians and nurses.