RECREATIONAL AND VOCATIONAL THERAPY IN
TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY: THE VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION
PROCESS
Vocational therapy begins with a comprehensive vocational
evaluation to determine a person's basic skills, including their dexterity
and other physical capabilities, as well as their cognitive capabilities.
The evaluation process also includes a component that determines changes
in physical and cognitive capabilities and interests over time.
Once the evaluation is complete, the occupational or
vocational rehabilitation specialist will help the person:
-
Select and learn to use any assistive equipment they may need to enter or
re-enter the work force or engage in another method of productivity.
-
Develop personal supports, such as peer-to-peer mentor programs and appropriate
interpersonal advocacy
-
Identify potential work, educational, or other community environments where
the person can be productive
-
Identify and implement the necessary assistive equipment, environmental
modifications, task restructuring, task modification, use of coworkers, students,
or other members of the self-directed, productive group as personal assistants,
etc.
|
Based on Brain Injury Patient Care and
Education Manual, by Pinecrest Rehabilitation Hospital; Neuro section of
the Trauma Manual, Jackson Memorial Hospital; and Recovering from Head Injury;
a Guide for Patients, by Nova University Neuropsychology Service, and edited
for PoinTIS by the Louis Calder Memorial Library of the University of Miami
School of Medicine and the PoinTIS Advisory Committee, and on Rehabilitation
of Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury, NIH Consensus Statement 1998 Oct.
26-28.
|