Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors:
Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Changes
Head injuries are common among our patients with history of car accidents, domestic violence, combat trauma, and chemical dependency. How does an observant clinician “pick up on” brain injury related problems? What behavioral, cognitive, and emotional challenges might be related to this “invisible injury”? This workshop is designed to help clinicians identify, support, and treat the neurocognitive sequellae of brain injury.
This workshop is for
- Psycholgists
- Licensed Mental Health Clinicians
- Social Workers
- Case Managers
- Occupational Therapists
- Speech and Language Pathologists
You will learn
- What constitutes a “concussion”
- What doctors look for in order to “see” evidence of brain injury on MRI and other imaging
- How to get a good “head injury history”
- What two outpatient mental health populations are most likely to have history of traumatic brain injury
- Expert use of the clinical examination to identify and “tease out” cognitive impairments related to head injury
- How to manage symptom overlap among mental health and head injury deficits
- What counseling adaptations these patients require
- Supporting the spouse and family of the head injured patient
- How to find community resources for support and treatment of the head injured patient
Outline
- Comprehensive overview of traumatic brain injury
- Incidence and causes of brain injury
- Types of injury
- Behavioral and motivational and impulse-control deficits
- Cognitive deficits
Identifying the head Injured patient
- What does brain injury look like?
- Is there such a thing as “acquired ADHD”?
- Signs of milder brain injuries
- Suspicious symptoms of “shaken baby syndrome”
- Who complains of TBI symptoms?
- Quick adjustments to your interview which prevent “missing” head injury problems
- How to use the mental status exam to assess for impairments common to the brain injury survivor
- Supporting and treating the patient with brain injury
- When to recommend referral to Neurology, Physiatry, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Neuropsychology, etc.
- How to locate community supports and services for your head injured patients
- Supporting vocational and school adjustment after head injury
- Doing counseling with the brain injury survivor – therapeutic adjustments and accommodations
- Involving spouse and other family in treatment
- Managing the dual diagnosis patient – head injury and substances
