Full Description
This workbook is designed as both a reference for in-depth clinical information as well as a hands-on tool for addressing the many challenges of living with a brain injury. As survivors, families and caregivers achieve new goals, encounter setbacks, and meet new challenges, this workbook provides information, strategies, tools, and checklists that will guide the reader through the next phase of recovery.
Twelve chapters discuss critical issues that most survivors, families and caregivers deal with at some stage in recovery after a brain injury. The workbook starts with helping readers understand what happens when the brain is injured and describes the complex medical issues involved for survival. As all families know, medical treatment comes at a cost, and there are many more hidden costs for families. A chapter on financial and health care concerns tackles the often confusing array of disability benefits, financial support, and health insurance. As survivors leave the hospital or rehabilitation setting, the chapter on neuropsychological assessment helps prepare them for returning home and reentering their community. Next is a chapter on the use of medications for the behavioral and emotional changes that often accompany a brain injury, with worksheets to help manage medications and to discuss treatment with your physician.
The next chapters address the changes in behaviors that are so often stressful, confusing and difficult to manage at home. Closely linked to this topic is a chapter on the emotional challenges, including depression and anxiety, that can affect both survivors and caregivers.
Next is a chapter on employment strategies and resources for survivors who are seeking a first time job or are considering returning to work. Closely linked to this is the next chapter on managing cognitive changes and fatigue in order to lead a more productive and fulfilling life.
For those readers with a child who has been injured, there is a special chapter on returning to school after brain injury that focuses on the critical transition to adult life.
The risks of alcohol and other drug use after brain injury are frankly discussed, as substances are too often used in attempts to fight depression, isolation, and other losses. The chapter on veterans discusses not only the consequences of blast injuries and brain trauma but also post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) as service members return home. Because so many survivors have found themselves socially isolated as time passes since their injury, the final chapter focuses on re-connecting with relationships and community activities.
As you can see from this list, the authors have addressed a wide range of topics and issues that survivors, families and caregivers have said are critical for their recovery.
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Details
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| Item | LVLF |
| ISBN# | 9781931117609 |
| Pages | 211 pages plus CD with 46 worksheets and forms |
| Year | 2011 |
Contents
Ch 1 Medical Issues and the Nature of Recovery after Brain Injury by Kathleen Bell, M.D.
Ch 2 Financial and Healthcare Concerns by Robert Fraser, Ph.D.; Kurt Johnson, Ph.D.
Ch 3 Neuropsychological Assessment by Gwendolyn Gerner, Psy.D.; David Schretlen, Ph.D.
Ch 4 Medications: Psychopharmacology after Brain Injury by Samantha Behbahani, Psy.D.; Efrain Gonzalez, Psy.D.
Ch 5 Managing Behavioral Changes by Thomas Novack, Ph.D.
Ch 6 Managing Depression, Anxiety, and Emotional Challenges by Dawn Ehde, Ph.D.; Jesse Fann, M.D.
Ch 7 Employment Strategies and Resources by Robert Fraser, Ph.D.; Paul Wehman, Ph.D.; Pamela Targett, MEd
Ch 8 Strategies and Accommodations to Manage Cognitive Changes and Fatigue by Kurt Johnson, Ph.D.; Kathryn Yorkston, Ph.D.
Ch 9 Returning to School after Brain Injury: Transition to Adult Life by Pat Brown, Ed.D.
Ch 10 Alcohol and Other Drug Use after Brain Injury by Charles Bombardier, Ph.D.
Ch 11 Veterans and Brain Injury by Maureen O'Connor, Psy.D.; Charles Drebing, Ph.D.
Ch 12 Re-connecting with Relationships and Community Activities by Angelle Sander, Ph.D.; Allison Clark, Ph.D.
Excerpts
Managing Behavioral Changes
Introduction
This chapter helps the caregiver who is trying to manage difficult behavior by a survivor with a severe traumatic brain injury. If you are a survivor, you may not have these types of issues or you may have them and be unaware of them. In addition to your personal efforts to control your behavior, it is your caregiver and significant others who can help you by using some of the “tips” presented in this chapter. By working together, a survivor and caregiver/significant other can often make substantial behavioral gains.
Why do they behave that way?
The frustration is enough to pull out your hair at times! People spending time with a person with a traumatic brain injury sometimes have to deal with irritability, inappropriate comments, unpredictable responses, poor self-awareness, impulsive behavior, lack of motivation, or refusing to do things, among other issues. The person's behavior is so different from what he/she was like before the brain injury! It is like “throwback” behavior to a younger age or even more extreme. These concerns are more common with more severe injuries. How does a caregiver deal with while still helping with recovery and maintaining sanity? First, understand why this is happening and, second, learn what you can do to improve the situation.
There's a reason.
Those ol' frontal lobes. Areas of the brain that are often injured can affect behavior directly. This is particularly evident with trauma to the frontal part of the brain. Damage to this area, which controls what are often called "executive skills," can lead to the difficult behaviors that occur after a brain injury. Like an executive of a company, the frontal areas of the brain establish goals, patterns of behavior to achieve those goals, and inhibition (stopping) of behavior that is not consistent with those goals. For example, when a student has a test coming up, the goal is to perform well on the test. The pattern of behavior consistent with that goal is studying, meaning there will be an inhibition of inappropriate behavior such as watching television.
A frontal area disorder due to a brain injury causes a breakdown in establishing and maintaining goals. This means that the person will have difficulty establishing an appropriate goal, sticking to a goal, and stopping behavior that is not essential to the goal.
Can we talk?
In addition, people with a substantial brain injury often have difficulty communicating clearly and understanding clearly what is said to them. An injured person may have difficulty attending to longer instructions or conversations, particularly complex ones. Staying on topic may be difficult.
What are you really saying?
The ability to read and generate social cues may also be diminished. People with a brain injury may not pick up on “body language,” tone of voice, or facial expression during conversation. For instance, a survivor may not pick up on the body language typically used to say, “I am done with this conversation,” or, “I do not have a romantic interest in you.” Self and interpersonal awareness may be quite limited.
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