Cognitive Rehabilitation

Remedial & Compensatory Strategies

COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT

Occupational therapists are trained to assess cognitive issues (focus, memory, thinking skills, etc.) that may be interfering with participation in activities of daily living such as self-care, homemaking, school, work and leisure activities.  Cognitive rehabilitation begins by the occupational therapist meeting with a person who may have experienced a concussion (mildTBI) or who has been diagnosed with an acquired brained injury (ABI) from a fall or a traumatic brain injury (TBI) from a car accident, assault, drowning or medical procedure.  Our referrals come from family members, family physicians, specialist physicians, chiropractors, physical therapists as well as insurance companies and legal professionals.  We provided home-based occupational therapy services with a variety of standardized cognitive testing tools for kids, teens, adults and older adults in addition to a functional assessment (e.g. kitchen safety, planning tasks, etc.).  Our assessment process tries to include talking with a family member or another person who can share any changes they may have observed or concerns they may have since the initial injury.

Turning Point Rehab has partnered with Cambridge Brain Sciences (CBS) to offer an online test to provide an accurate measure of 12 different areas of cognition.  This assessment will help OT target therapy to efficiently improve cognitive health and well being. Key highlights of this cloud-based service include:

  • Comprehensive cognitive assessment to objectively evaluate short-term memory, reasoning, concentration and verbal abilities
  • Personalized report is generated that will compare performance in core cognitive areas to others of the same age
  • 1 on 1 consultation with the OT to review and discuss your results, including a go-forward action plan geared toward improving the aspects of cognition you care about most

TREATMENT

After the cognitive assessment is complete, the OT will work with identifying individualized goals for the cognitive rehabilitation program.  Common goals are to improve focus while reading, organization with work/school tasks, memory of lists and names, etc.  Cognitive rehabilitation involves two approaches.

Cognitive Remediation activities to help restore attention, memory, thinking skills.  We utilize evidenced-based cognitive remediation programs, such as the Brainwave-R, that the OT individualizes to target cognitive skills; we do not rely on apps or technology that are not likely to help you meet your goals.  Brainwave-R – was designed to assist in the cognitive rehabilitation of individuals with brain injuries. It consists of five workbooks (attention, visual processing, information processing, memory, and executive functions) containing many cognitive exercises. The Occupational Therapist works along with a Rehabilitation Assistant (RA) or Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) to help work through the individualized activities on a regular basis to help restore cognitive function.  Cognitive rehabilitation may start at 2 or 3 times per week and may continue as long as progress is being made toward meeting functional goals.  The occupational therapist will re-assess on a regular basis to ensure progress is being met with the remediation program and make changes as needed.

Compensatory Strategies help make activities that require cognitive skills easier.  Learning how to compensate for cognitive difficulties after a brain injury is key during early and late recovery.  OTs provide education sessions on the strategies most likely to help you reduce cognitive fatigue during early recovery and later, to improve functioning by compensating attention, memory, planning and organizing functions.  The following are common examples of how learning compensatory strategies can improve daily functioning.

  • Self-care such as remembering to take medication as prescribed or attending medical appointments as scheduled
  • Homemaking- such as organizing a list and schedule to participate in grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning or developing other delegation and planning strategies
  • Work- learning new reminder system, way to utilize calendars, visual/auditory strategies and delegation strategies to improve work efficiencies at the office or at school.
  • Leisure - learning pacing strategies to reserve cognitive energy and alertness to socialize or participate in hobbie

 

Feel free to take a sample CBS cognitive assessment.  If you or someone you know would benefit from cognitive rehabilitation, please contact us and we will help with the rest, including trying to get appropriate referrals and funding.  If there is no viable funding source, we do provide private pay options.

 


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