Working with Patients with Neurocognitive Disorders

elective courses

The aim of this workshop is to help students specializing in clinical psychology (Neuropsychological Path) in learning - under the supervision of an instructor - to work with individuals with neurocognitive disorders, such as: aphasia, amnesia, apraxia or amnesia.

Students will work in small subgroups with brain injured individuals (one patient per subgroup) under supervision of the leading instructor (max 3 -4 subgroups with max 2-3 students per subgroup).

BI individuals are recruited from the group of adult BI patients who volunteer to take part in analogous workshops for students specializing in clinical neuropsychology at the Polish Division Faculty of Psychology Warsaw University. These BD volunteers are generally in good mental and physical condition but suffer from mild to moderate neurocognitive disorders (eg. aphasia, amnesia, agnosia, apraxia) usually after cerebrovascular accident, traumatic brain injury or neurosurgery. Some of the patients can speak English. In case of non-English speaking patients translation by students fluent in Polish will be required, but active participation in the whole process of assessment and rehabilitation will be expected from all students independently from their knowledge of Polish.

At the beginning of the course student participants will refresh their knowledge on the rights of patients and legal/ethical issues regarding working with them.

Classes will take place once a week through the whole academic year, excluding usual breaks and holidays. The course will be divided into four phases:

1. Introduction to the course

2. Assessment/diagnosis/planning rehabilitation for a BD patient

3. Executing a rehabilitation program with BD patient,

4. Re-assessment/reporting.

Each class will consist of: 15 min. preparation in class, 1 hour of work in subgroups with a BD patient, 15 min. discussing the session in class. Students will be asked to plan of each session and consult it with the teacher ahead - at least a day before the session.

During the sessions students will make contact with the patients, get orientation in the patient’s needs, areas of preserved and impaired neuropsychological functions. Based on the interview and assessment using selected clinical tolls students will make a plan of individualized rehabilitation program. Each student will be obliged to find or create task/materials for rehabilitation purposes. Members of the subgroups will need to cooperate with each other to provide a coherent assessment and rehabilitation program for the BD patients.

Finally students will write their reports on their work with BD patients summarizing information from the assessment, rehabilitation and re-assessment phases as well as suggestions for further rehabilitation.

Course participants will acquire knowledge of human behaviour and performance after brain injury. They will learn how to solve the main problems of neuropsychological diagnosis, assessment and rehabilitation in practice. The students will also deepen their knowledge on cross-cultural and ethical issues in clinical neuropsychology.

Students will have the opportunity to develop the skills and competences necessary for clinical neuropsychologists:

 making contact and communicating with brain dysfunctional patients, active listening, social perceptiveness, empathy,

 applying scientific knowledge and methods in neuropsychology to conduct assessment, make diagnosis, create a plan of rehabilitation tasks for a BI individual with neuropsychological disorders.

 monitoring/assessing performance of BD patients, yourself and other student participants,

 managing one’s own time and the time of others

 writing a neuropsychological report.