Brain Injury Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation programs that develop an individually tailored treatment plan that combines the resources of physical, occupational and speech/language therapists; physiatrists (physical medicine specialists); neuropsychologists/psychiatrists; cognitive rehabilitation therapists; rehabilitation nurses; vocational counselors; social workers and/or other specialists to help individuals who have been disabled by an acquired brain injury attain their maximum level of functioning and quality of life. Common disabilities experienced by ABI patients following acute treatment and medical stabilization include problems with cognition (thinking, memory, and reasoning), sensory processing (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), communication (expression and understanding), and behavior or mental health (depression, anxiety, personality changes, aggression, acting out, and social inappropriateness). Therapy generally focuses on behavioral management, neuropsychological adaptation, environmental structuring, eating and swallowing management, cognitive and communication skills, daily living and social skills, self-care, ambulation, academic and vocational skills, and community reintegration. The goal of brain injury rehabilitation is to restore functions and skills that can be recovered and to help patients learn to do things differently when functioning cannot be restored to pre-injury levels.