Examining Personal Identity and the Influence of an Occupation-Based Prevocational Program Following Traumatic Brain Injury: A Multiple Case Study.

Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) experience and live with physiological, psychological, and social impacts of their injury throughout their lives, including changes in one's sense of personal identity. This qualitative multiple-case study examines the lived experiences of four individuals living with brain injuries and how participation in occupation-based community programming interacts with post-injury sense of self. Study data reveal a dynamic relationship between occupational participation and personal identity that suggests ongoing post-acute occupational therapy services can support recovery including aspects of identity reformation.

Moving Beyond Rapport: The Importance of Active Facilitation of Therapeutic Alliance in Adult Acquired Brain Injury Rehabilitation.

Purpose: Therapeutic alliance (TA) is critical to rehabilitation outcomes for adults with acquired brain injuries (ABIs). The purpose of this viewpoint article is to review factors that contribute to TA and to suggest ways speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can integrate these factors into their ABI rehabilitation practice.

Method: We evaluated literature describing client and clinician factors shown to affect-or not affect-TA in ABI rehabilitation and mapped findings onto suggested practices that SLPs may use to actively promote TA with their clients.

Tutorial: The Speech-Language Pathologist's Role in Return to Work for Adults With Traumatic Brain Injury.

Purpose: Return to work (RTW) is a major life participation metric used for persons with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have clinical expertise in the cognitive-communication aspects of TBI. This clinical focus article aims to support the clinical practice of SLPs by summarizing key interprofessional vocational rehabilitation (VR) models and illustrating the role of the SLP throughout the RTW process with a case study.

Social Communication Following Adult Traumatic Brain Injury: A Scoping Review of Theoretical Models.

Purpose Social communication is the set of abilities that allows individuals to achieve relevant social goals across contexts. Speech-language pathology evaluation and treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related social communication problems should be informed by evidence-supported theories of social communication. The primary purpose of this article is to summarize the results of a scoping review of theoretical models that speech-language pathologists may apply to the evaluation and treatment of social communication problems of adults with TBI.

Social communication following traumatic brain injury part I: State-of-the-art review of assessment tools.

Purpose: The primary aim of this paper was to identify and describe current social communication assessment tools for adults with traumatic brain injury.

Method: We conducted a state-of-the-art review to identify and categorise the range of social communication assessment tools found in the assessment and treatment literature that revealed 42 measures that were coded according to characteristics related to assessment types, psychometrics, and implementation.

Result: Of the 42 assessments, 64% evaluated social cognition and the remaining 36% evaluated communication.

Social communication following traumatic brain injury part 2: Identifying effective treatment ingredients.

Purpose: Social communication deficits are a severely debilitating aspect of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and there is strong clinical and research interest in how social communication interventions work for this population. Informed by a companion paper targeting assessment of social communication impairments post-TBI, this paper reviews relevant treatment theories and provides an inventory of social communication treatment components.

Method: We completed a mapping review examining 17 articles from recent literature reviews and 4 updated articles from a literature search to identify treatment targets and ingredients using the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS).

Ethical deliberation: a foundation for evidence-based practice.

Infusing evidence-based practice (EBP) into the clinical setting implies that professionals use evidence that is relevant and credible, maintain their pursuit of best current knowledge, respect their clients' preferences and values, and keep these clients and their families appropriately informed about their treatment options. Thus, rational and judicious EBP must be guided by speech-language pathologists' or audiologists' ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and autonomy. In this article, we will affirm the centrality of ethical reasoning in EBP by describing what it means to be a professional as reflected in our Code of Ethics, reviewing the principles of ethics that underlie clinical decision making, and demonstrating how an ethical framework can and should provide the context in which EBP is conducted.

A randomised controlled crossover trial evaluating Television Assisted Prompting (TAP) for adults with acquired brain injury.

Assistive technologies for cognition (ATC) provide an effective means to compensate for prospective memory failures among adults with acquired brain injury (ABI; de Joode, van Heugten, Verhey, & van Boxtel, 2010 ; Sohlberg et al., 2007 ). This study evaluated a novel ATC device, the Television Assisted Prompting (TAP) system, which provides audiovisual reminders at scheduled prospective times on a person's home television.

Phase I evaluation of the television assisted prompting system to increase completion of home exercises among stroke survivors.

PURPOSE. Effective delivery of dysphagia exercises requires intensive repetition, yet many brain injury survivors demonstrate difficulty adhering to home programmes. The Television Assisted Prompting (TAP) system provides a novel method to deliver intensive in-home therapy prompts.

When directions fail: Investigation of getting lost behaviour in adults with acquired brain injury.

Primary Objective: To investigate and describe getting lost behaviour and wayfinding strategies among acquired brain injury (ABI) survivors and matched controls.

Research Design: Matched control group comparison design.

Methods And Procedures: This study compared wayfinding performance of 18 adults with acquired brain injury to controls matched for gender, age and education.

How best to orient travellers with acquired brain injury: A comparison of three directional prompts.

Primary Objective: To compare the effects of written landmark, cardinal and left/right street directions on navigational success at the beginning of a walking route.

Research Design: Matched control group comparison design.

Methods And Procedures: This study compared navigational performance of 18 adults with acquired brain injury (ABI) to controls matched for gender, age and education.

Public computing options for individuals with cognitive impairments: survey outcomes.

Purpose: To examine availability and accessibility of public computing for individuals with cognitive impairment (CI) who reside in the USA.

Method: A telephone survey was administered as a semi-structured interview to 145 informants representing seven types of public facilities across three geographically distinct regions using a snowball sampling technique. An Internet search of wireless (Wi-Fi) hotspots supplemented the survey.

Validation of the Activities of Community Transportation model for individuals with cognitive impairments.

Purpose: To develop a theoretical, functional model of community navigation for individuals with cognitive impairments: the Activities of Community Transportation (ACTs).

Methods: Iterative design using qualitative methods (i.e.

A profile of community navigation in adults with chronic cognitive impairments.

Primary Objective: This study sought to identify navigation patterns and illuminate the barriers to and possible solutions for independent community travel in people with chronic cognitive impairments as a result of acquired brain injury.

Research Design: Two investigative methods were used to explore navigation in the population of interest: Study 1 was a field study and study 2 convened a series of focus groups with relevant stakeholders.

Methods And Procedures: For study 1, each week during a 4 month period, researchers administered a navigational survey and structured interview to a typical case sample of six participants in order to catalogue all trips taken outside the assistive living facility.