Webinar - Practical help for people with memory problems following non-progressive brain injury

This 60-minute webinar was presented by Prof Barbara A. Wilson on 14th August 2020. Synopsis of Session: This webinar examines the key components of memory rehabilitation and discusses ways in which they can be employed in clinical practice. Although restoration of memory functioning to pre-injury levels is unlikely to occur, there is much that can be done to enable memory-impaired people and their relatives to come to terms with their difficulties and surmount a number of them by using various strategies and aids. External memory aids such as diaries, notebooks, tape recorders, and mobile phones, widely used by the general population, are often problematic for memory-impaired people simply because their successful use involves memory. However, the use of these aids is possible through carefully structured teaching. Internal strategies such as mnemonics and rehearsal techniques can be employed to teach new information. Errorless learning is more effective than trial-and-error learning for memory-impaired people. This is because, in order to benefit from our mistakes, we need to be able to remember them: a task that is difficult or impossible for memory-impaired people to achieve. In addition to poor memory, many brain-injured people will have other cognitive problems that need to be addressed. The emotional consequences of memory impairment such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness should also be dealt with in rehabilitation through counseling, anxiety-management techniques, and treatment in memory or psychotherapy groups. The webinar concludes with a structure for designing a treatment plan to reduce everyday problems for memory-impaired individuals. Target Audience: Any health care professional working in adult brain injury rehabilitation plus interested others such as students, family members, and some survivors of brain injury.