Working together to improve the lives of people with brain impairment

Elizabeth Hill is a Speech Pathologist and PhD candidate at Curtin University, WA. She is looking for people to complete her survey, please see below for information on the survey then click on the link. Survey link: https://tinyurl.com/ybm9662v

Survey title: 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.

Ethics approval/reference number:  Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) has approved this study (HREC number HRE2016-0349-07).

Study information and eligibility: This study aims to understand current assessment and treatment practices of Speech Pathologists who target discourse-level impairments in child/adolescent acquired brain injury (ABI). If you are a speech pathologist in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, America, Canada, and the Asia Pacific region (e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore) who has worked with children or adolescents with an ABI, we would like to invite you to participate in an online survey. This project will investigate current assessment and intervention practices used to manage discourse-level impairments in this population.

Please direct queries to a member of the research team:

Elizabeth Hill, PhD Candidate
School of Occupational Therapy, Social Work, and Speech Pathology
Curtin University
elizabeth.j.hill@postgrad.curtin.edu.au

Dr Mary Claessen, Senior Lecturer
School of Occupational Therapy, Social Work, and Speech Pathology
Curtin University
m.claessen@curtin.edu.au

A/Prof Anne Whitworth
School of Occupational Therapy, Social Work, and Speech Pathology
Curtin University
anne.whitworth@curtin.edu.au

Dr Mark Boyes, Senior Research Fellow
School of Psychology
mark.boyes@curtin.edu.au

Jai Carmichael is a Psychology Honours student at Monash University. Together with Jennie Ponsford, Kate Gould and Amelia Hicks at the Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre (MERRC) in Victoria, I am asking for people to complete a brief (10-15 min) online anonymous survey and distribute the survey among their relevant networks.

A wide range of therapists are invited to participate, including clinical neuropsychologists, clinical (and other) psychologists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, rehabilitation physicians, and other health professionals.

You are eligible to complete this survey if you:

• Are a therapist working with adults (18+ years of age) with acquired brain injury (ABI) in community settings
• Manage behavioural issues presented by your adult clients with ABI
• Currently practise in Australia

The anonymous survey will ask you about your experiences, attitudes, preferences and needs in learning and using behaviour management interventions for adult clients with ABI (Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee approval CF15/2884 - 2015001191).

At the end of the survey, you will be asked if you are interested in taking part in an optional open-ended interview by teleconference or face-to-face on your views on behaviour management interventions. To thank you for your time should you choose to volunteer for the interview, you will receive two adult movie vouchers.

The survey will be available to complete until 1 August 2018 and the link is below:

LINK: https://monash.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_80mW2lS504RTpnn

Clicking on the link will direct you to a more detailed explanatory statement and a consent form.

It is hoped that the findings from this survey will help direct the development of better quality training opportunities for community ABI therapists.

Thank you for your assistance, Jai Carmichael, Psychology Honours student (jcar49@student.monash.edu; 0449 772 984)

Supervisors: Professor Jennie Ponsford (jennie.ponsford@monash.edu), Dr Kate Gould (kate.gould@monash.edu), Ms Amelia Hicks (amelia.hicks@monash.edu), Monash University, MERRC office number: 9426 8923

Crystal Kelly is a Speech Pathologist and PhD candidate at Griffith University, QLD. She is looking for people to complete a 45 min interview using videoconferencing, please see below for information on the survey then email Crystal: crystal.kelly@griffithuni.edu.au . We are currently conducting a study to identify clinical practices of speech pathologists when managing adults with cognitive-communication disorders (CCDs) following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). As part of this study we are completing one-on-one interviews with speech pathologists across Australia and New Zealand who have experience within the last two years with this population in community-based settings.

The study involves participants completing a 45 minute interview using videoconferencing, and focuses on a range of areas relating to current clinical practice when managing this population. The results of this study will contribute to the CCD and TBI body of research and Crystal Kelly's PhD thesis.

For speech pathologists who are interested in participating in the study or would like further information please contact Crystal Kelly - crystal.kelly@griffithuni.edu.au.

Research Team: A/Professor Petrea Cornwell, Ms Crystal Kelly, Dr Anna Copley and Prof David Shum.

Griffith University ethics reference number: 2016-731

Download the participant information sheet HERE

Invitation to Participate in a Project on Neuropsychological Formulation

Professor Barbara Wilson invites you to participate in the exciting project described below by completing this five minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5V5DRYP. 

Formulation models in clinical neuropsychology: Obtaining a professional consensus
This project aims to gain a professional consensus on a model to guide practice in clinical neuropsychology. We aim to (a) ascertain which models clinical neuropsychologists use to develop formulations at present (b) establish how this knowledge was acquired, and (c) gather feedback on the perceived utility of one model in particular with the goal of reaching a professional consensus. 

The skill of neuropsychological formulation is often taught like a lost art form, with knowledge handed down from generation to generation and learnt primarily via experience of working under the supervision of one’s elders. There are very few basic frameworks published to assist clinicians new to the profession. It is our understanding that good neuropsychological formulation is the cornerstone to effective neuropsychological rehabilitation and that this belief is widely held amongst practicing clinicians internationally; but what do we mean by ‘good’?  Experienced neuropsychologists often hold a clear concept of what this is and may be critical of inexperienced clinicians who may, for example, interpret test scores in isolation rather than evaluating the whole cognitive profile in the context of other relevant factors that define the individual. 

To the best of our knowledge the benchmark of what defines best practice in neuropsychological formulation has never been agreed formally or subject to peer review. This workshop seeks to reach a consensus amongst world leading practitioners and researchers in the field of neuropsychology on what ‘good’ neuropsychological formulation involves. We will present our attempt to consolidate the core components of neuropsychological formulation into a comprehensive framework and invite participants to critically evaluate this model and share their own experiences of good practice in neuropsychological formulation.

This workshop seeks to reach international consensus amongst participants about best practice in neuropsychological formulation through an iterative process of data collection via surveys and a video-recorded focus group. The results will be submitted for publication and all participants acknowledged if they wish. We strongly encourage all conference attendees to participate in this exciting event to ensure their views are reflected in the final document and that the consensus reached is a truly representative sample of the international neuropsychology community. Whether you attend the event or not, we would be grateful if you could complete the initial short survey using this link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5V5DRYP. The results of the survey will inform the first round of discussions at the workshop at the NR-SIG-WFNR Conference in Prague on 16th July. We look forward to seeing you there!