NEWS

ASSBI and Corporate Partners Shine Lawyers recently partnered to host a series of workshops on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) with a focus on eligibility, funding and appeals.

       The NDIS commenced its roll out in July 2016 to improve the wellbeing of those living with disability. With its introduction into different states, region by region over a period of time, and varying approaches to eligibility and funding, the scheme has raised many questions. The workshops were designed to equip ASSBI members and other health providers with a better understanding of the NDIS, explaining the levels of support available for clients and patients, and providing an opportunity for participants to raise questions.

       Nickelle Morris, Special Counsel from Shine Lawyers (who spoke in Brisbane) shared her views:

“We received great feedback from the day including the information shared on case studies which provided insight on what is and is not acceptable by the Scheme and also the tips and tricks shared by Brooke Kooymans from a practical perspective.  Many attendees spoke about the delays with NDIS and the difficulties they’ve experienced dealing with the system. Through educating providers on the processes and procedures, we want to be able to reduce some of this frustration. Several participants commented that they walked away with some crucial learnings, which is really promising to hear.” 

Libby Callaway, is a registered occupational therapist, and director of Neuroskills Pty Ltd. At Monash, (who spoke in Melbourne) also shared her views:

It was fantastic to collaborate with Shine Lawyers and ASSBI to deliver an interdisciplinary workshop on the NDIS. As a clinician working with NDIS participants who is also a researcher leading investigations on NDIS policy and implementation, I was pleased to contribute my knowledge to assist workshop attendees to translate NDIS policy into practice. It was also great to be able to provide practical resources for clinicians to use when working with NDIS participants with acquired brain injury.

Each workshop followed a two-prong approach, with legal experts from Shine talking through the applicable legislation supported by a sample of case law from reviews and appeals. This practical approach resonated with attendees as it put the aspects of the legislation into context. The second segment then provided a detailed practical explanation of the processes involved for health providers who are working with NDIS participants; this included a range of practical tips and tricks.

       The information provided at each event the country has been very well received by those in attendance. On behalf of Shine Lawyers and ASSBI, we’d like to express our sincere thanks to all of our presenters who generously gave up their time to deliver the workshops.  

       If you are interested in knowing more about the information discussed during the workshops please do not hesitate to reach out to Shine Lawyers.

NOTE from ASSBI: If you are interested in buying an MP4 of any of the 4 Workshops email Margaret at admin@assbi.com.au

Welcome to September, so called because it was the 7^th (septum) month of the 10-month Roman calendar that then became the 9^th month of the 12-month Julian calendar when Julius Caesar added 2 more months, Jan and Feb, in 45BC. Why you ask, is Jacinta waffling on about calendars and months in the ASSBI newsletter? Well I don’t know about you but from my perspective, time now flies by so quickly that I reckon it’s about time we added another 2 months to the end of the calendar!! We could call them farbehindber and caughtupber! By the way, I think that Margaret, our CEO extraordinaire, already has 2 months hidden away somewhere because she ensures ASSBI has so much to offer our membership in any given year.

Back in July, the real 7^th month of the year, ASSBI members were out en masse showcasing ground-breaking research at the Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Special Interest Group (NR-SIG) meeting of the World Federation of Neurorehabilitation (WFNR) and the International Neuropsychological Society (INS) meeting in Prague. It never ceases to amaze me how impressively our doctoral candidates, and early, mid and established career researchers perform on the world stage – congratulations to all those who yet again demonstrated excellence in their fields.

At the same time in Prague, ASSBI took the opportunity of entering into a formal agreement with INS by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two organisations. During the closing ceremony of the Prague meeting, myself as president of ASSBI and Keith Yeates as president of INS signed an MOU reflecting our societies’ mutual commitment to working together on matters of common concern and in the public interest. Indeed the Constitution of ASSBI and the Bylaws of INS share mutual objectives which include both organizations’ emphasis on multidisciplinary membership and the importance of their scientific, clinical, and educational missions and the MOU provides us with a framework to support ongoing cooperation.

Thinking about our organisational partnerships, brings me to an important reminder: our 2019, 42^nd Annual Brain Impairment conference will be held in Wellington in collaboration with the New Zealand Rehabilitation Association (NZRA) Biannual conference as the inaugural ASSBI NZRA Trans Tasman Conference AND the call for abstracts is now open. Our theme is A Call for Action, so take action now and submit you abstract HERE

While we don’t have those extra 2 months I fantasised about at the beginning of my September President’s words, we do have plenty of upcoming activities and opportunities to keep members super active including 4 upcoming workshops on the NDIS (Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney), the 2^nd (Sept) 2018 issue of Brain Impairment, resources to download or purchase and abstracts to submit.

Best wishes to you all,
Jacinta Douglas, President

The Call for Abstracts for #assbinzra2019 is now open, there are changes to how you submit so PLEASE go to the CONFERENCE SITE and read the Call for Abstracts thoroughly prior to submitting. We will be closing submissions on 19th October so don't delay submit today!

Every day we grieve the loss of our loved one, yet they survived the crash

With the permission of her inspirational client, Shine Lawyers’ Solicitor Laura Hadfield has written this eye-opening article discussing what life can look like for families when a loved one has suffered a life-altering event. Bundaberg woman Rhiannon was kind enough to give an insight into her tragic accident, and the tough journey she has been on ever since. With the help of Shine Lawyers she is making progress, but it’s a path she never imagined her life would take. Click here to read Laura’s story.  

Back in the March edition of the newsletter, I began this column by commenting on the numerous exciting events ahead for 2018 including our 41^st Brain Impairment Conference in Adelaide. Now in June, I can begin the column by reflecting not only on the wonderful success of the conference but also the enjoyment of Connecting and Collaborating that accompanied the event. Truly enormous thanks are due to Liz Williams and her team who worked tirelessly to produce a fabulous multifaceted experience for delegates. We had the privilege of being part of the “This is me” art exhibition which profoundly set the scene for the conference through sharing the work of South Australian artists and their stories of living with brain impairment. The artwork created such a strong feeling of connection and permeated the entire event. Caleb Rixon’s powerful personal keynote address set the programme proper off to an exceptional start from the insider’s perspective – wisdom and entertainment so skilfully crafted! Through workshops, keynote addresses, how to sessions and platform, datablitz and poster presentations, research, knowledge and skills were there to be sampled across the broad range of ASSBI interests. 

I would also like to congratulate all our award winners announced at the conference. Our award winners are typically selected from an amazing field of candidates and this year was certainly no exception. ASSBI congratulations go to our 2018 winners.

• ASSBI Early Career Clinical Innovation Award: joint winners Rebecca Andrews and Kate Gould.
• The Douglas Tate Award for the best research paper published in 2017 in Brain Impairment was a tie between Renee Roelofs for her paper Roelofs, R., Wingbermühle, E., Egger, J., & Kessels, R. (2017). Social Cognitive Interventions in Neuropsychiatric Patients: A Meta-Analysis. Brain Impairment, 18(1), 138-173. doi:10.1017/BrImp.2016.31 and Nicholas Ryan for his paper: Ryan, N., Mihaljevic, K., Beauchamp, M., Catroppa, C., Crossley, L., Hearps, S., Anderson, V. (2017). Examining the Prospective Relationship between Family Affective Responsiveness and Theory of Mind in Chronic Paediatric Traumatic Brain Injury. Brain Impairment, 18(1), 88-101.
• The Kevin Walsh award for the most outstanding Masters student: Kelly Stagg for her presentation “A scoping review of the working alliance in acquired brain injury rehabilitation”.
• The Luria Award for the most outstanding doctoral candidate: Lee Cubis for his presentation “The importance of staying connected: mediating and moderating effects of social groups on psychological wellbeing after brain tumour”.
• The Travel Award for students: Liz Williams for “Getting on the same wavelength: Clinician’s perspectives of the therapeutic alliance in community brain injury rehabilitation”.
• The Mindlink Brightwater Award for Interdisciplinary research: Glenn Kelly for “The Building Bridges project: Linking disconnected service networks in ABI and criminal justice”.

Now from looking back to our 41^st conference it is time to look forward to 2019 and Wellington, NZ where we will be holding our 42^nd Brain Impairment conference in collaboration with the New Zealand Rehabilitation Association (NZRA) Biannual conference as the inaugural ASSBI/NZRA Trans-Tasman Conference. The 2018 conference report and details for 2019 can be found on our website https://assbi.com.au/ASSBI-Conferences There is much else on offer as the year progresses so be sure to check out the professional development section of the newsletter.

Learned societies like ASSBI are as strong as you the membership and particularly members who take on a significant role in the continuing work of the organisation. Prof David Shum is one of these generous colleagues and it is with sadness that I acknowledge David’s resignation from the ASSBI executive committee. David has made a substantial contribution to ASSBI over many years across multiple roles including that of President and former associate editor of Brain Impairment. David’s contribution to the work of ASSBI is acknowledged through his recognition as a Fellow of the society. David is returning to Hong Kong and while we will sorely miss him here in AUS, we look forward to our continuing connection and collaboration with him in Hong Kong.

Warmest winter wishes to you all,
Jacinta Douglas, President

Elizabeth Hill is a Speech Pathologist and PhD candidate at Curtin University in WA. she is is looking for people to complete a survey entitled:The assessment and management of discourse-level deficits in paediatric brain injury: a survey of current practice in Australia, New Zealand, UK, USA, Canada, and the Asia Pacific please CLICK HERE for information on the survey then click on the link.

Survey link: https://tinyurl.com/ybm9662v

August 4: Webinar "Executive Functions and the Frontal Lobes"

We are pleased to announce a partnership between ASSBI and the Luria Neuroscience Institute in the development of educational research programs. The first instance of this collaboration will be a Webinar entitled "Executive Functions and the Frontal Lobes"

The webinar by Elkhonon Goldberg, PhD, ABPP will be streamed live on August 4 (Saturday), 1pm - 4pm Australian Eastern Time.

CLICK HERE for more details and to REGISTER

ASSBI Members have been given access to all the articles from volume 23 of the International Neuropsychological Society's Journal JINS through 31 December 2018. Go to this link to find out more

Watch a video tribute to Kevin Walsh, who was the grandfather of Neuropsychology in Australia. This was put together by Prof Skye McDonald and features ASSBI Fellows and former colleagues of Kevin's reminiscing. 

I can’t believe it’s already March and the time for our first 2018 newsletter is here. For that matter I feel like I’m still adjusting to the idea of 2018! So luckily 2018 brings with it numerous exciting events and opportunities to connect with your ASSBI colleagues and share wisdom across lots of developing and new practice areas. Indeed, we start the year with an excellent workshop just around the time corner on 26 March. This full day workshop, sponsored by Shine Lawyers, brings together the expert knowledge of Associate Professor Carolina Bottari and Professor Sylvain Giroux from Canada. Their workshop is entitled Real people, Real life: Evaluations, cognitive assistance and smart homes for adult individuals with moderate or severe TBI and you can choose to attend in person in Sydney or through our live streaming option. For further information: View Event Details.

This rapid flow of time also means that our 41^st Brain Impairment Conference, 3-5 May, in Adelaide is almost here check it out. Yes the early bird registration closes on April 1^st – so don’t be foolish and miss out. Working to reflect our conference theme, Connecting and Collaborating in Rehabilitation, Liz Williams and her conference team have assembled a stellar team of keynote speakers and produced a programme covering a broad range of interests and topic areas across multiple disciplines. I look forward to seeing you there and catching up in person.

You will have recently received an email reminding you about the ASSBI Early Clinical Innovation Award. This award is designed to recognise innovation in the field of brain impairment consistent with our mission to improve the lives of individuals and families affected by progressive and non-progressive neurological conditions across the lifespan. For the purposes of this award, an early career clinician is defined as someone who was awarded their highest level of qualification within the last 10 years (career disruptions such as maternity, sick or carer leave are also taken into consideration). So if you are a clinical innovator or know someone who is, we’d love to receive an application from you by 15 March (Click here to download an application form).

In closing, let me say I hope the year has had a good start for you all and continues in that vein (or better) through 2018.

Warmest wishes,

Jacinta Douglas, President