Working together to improve the lives of people with brain impairment
- Home
- Opportunities for Involvement
Opportunities for Involvement
Dana Wong and the VaLiANT team are delighted to announce that they are now taking referrals for a new group program called VaLiANT (Valued Living After Neurological Trauma). The group is designed to enhance valued living (i.e., participating in activities that are consistent with personal values) after acquired brain injury. It is for adults aged 18+ who:
- have had an ABI (including stroke, TBI or other non-degenerative ABI)
- could attend the 8-week program at the La Trobe Psychology Clinic (in Bundoora, VIC)
- have experienced cognitive and/or emotional changes that have impacted on their participation in valued activities.
The group program integrates cognitive rehabilitation (mainly compensatory strategies) and psychological therapy (utilising the principles and processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). Each session will focus on a particular value domain (e.g., health, relationships) and will incorporate identification of valued activities within that domain (e.g., going for a walk, calling a friend) along with cognitive and coping strategies to enable participation in each valued activity. Participants will also complete a number of assessments as part of a research evaluation of the VaLiANT program. The program is free for research participants. The flyer is attached – please feel free to distribute (they are happy to send you paper copies if that is easiest).
They are very excited about this program which has been newly developed by the VaLiANT team, which includes Dr Dana Wong, Dr Eric Morris, & Dr Lucy Knox (all from La Trobe University), Professor Roshan das Nair (University of Nottingham), Dr David Gillanders (University of Edinburgh), Nick Sathananthan (MPsych/PhD Neuro student at La Trobe), and Bleydy Dimech-Betancourt (VaLiANT Research Officer). The project has been approved by the La Trobe University Human Research Ethics Committee.
If you would like any further information or would like to refer a potential participant, please don’t hesitate to contact Dana or the VaLiANT team on valiant@latrobe.edu.au or (03) 9479 1679.
Dear speech pathologist, We need your help in answering our research question! What is current practice amongst Australian speech pathologists who work with young families after parental acquired brain injury and/or stroke (aphasia, apraxia, dysarthria)? People with communication disability are more likely to report feelings of frustration, hopelessness, isolation and depression than people without communication difficulties. Therefore, it is imperative that speech pathologists are able to educate and support people with communication disabilities and their families to reduce the impact on their quality-of-life and wellbeing, including their children. However, little is known about speech pathologists’ practices in educating and counselling children about parental acquired communication disability. Our study aims to determine speech pathologist’s knowledge, confidence and satisfaction in addressing young children’s needs such as counselling and/or information provision and perceived barriers and facilitators in current clinical practice. If you are interested in participating, please refer to the attached Participant Information sheet, or click on the link below to access the SurveyMonkey survey. Once you open the link you will be able to provide consent before completing the survey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ChildrensNeedsAfterParentalCommunicationDisability Participation in this project is entirely voluntary. The project has received ethical clearance from The University of Queensland. We would also appreciate if you could forward this email onto any colleagues you have currently working as speech pathologists working with adults with acquired communication disorders, who you think might be interested in participating in this project. If you have any questions, I can be contacted on +61 7 3896 3133 or e.finch@uq.edu.au Kind regards, Skye McDonald at UNSW is recruiting for the undernoted studies and they need your help - DOWNLOAD FLYer Carer's Way Ahead: Pilot Study for carer's looking after people with TBI - This is an online support programme for family members who are caring for a person with brain injury. Changing Perspectives: Development of a perspective taking fluency & flexibility task - Can you spare 45 minutes twice in two weeks?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 Dr Mary Claessen, Senior Lecturer A/Prof Anne Whitworth Dr Mark Boyes, Senior Research Fellow |
ASSBI Committee ASSBI Fellow |
Opportunity in New Zealand Fixed Term Psychology Lecturer (0.5 FTE) at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) We are looking for a Lecturer, under the guidance of the Head of Discipline, and the management of the Associate Head of School will aid the delivery of teaching and learning experiences for students primarily enrolled on the rehabilitation psychology programme, engage in research and enhance the Discipline's capacity for postgraduate research and supervision, and provide leadership to and linkages with the national and international psychology community. The Lecturer acts as a facilitator for student learning, delivering high quality psychology teaching and learning experiences on-campus and within community and health service environments. They actively contribute to the critical study of psychology and nurture future scholars. They offer experience, innovation and leadership to the psychology community. Effective performance will result in maximising students' potential, enhancing the research profile of psychology and enhancing the critical and innovative capacity of the discipline nationally and internationally. |