Rehabilitation ; Types Of Rehabilitation Paper
A traumatic brain injury is a serious health issue, which though affects not only the physiological condition of patients but also their psychological condition and social life. In fact, a traumatic brain injury leads to the disability of patients which may vary depending on the severity of the injury. Nevertheless, whatever the severity of a traumatic brain injury is, the injury still has a negative impact on the life of patients. More important, a traumatic brain injury changes the life of patients for a long time or, in the most severe cases, forever. In fact, patients with a traumatic brain injury need to learn to live their life from the beginning because the brain is responsible for all vital processes in human body, while a traumatic brain injury leads to the injury, which may cause changes in the brain that cannot be fully recovered during the surgery. As a result, patients will have to regain their physical and mental abilities after the surgery. The process of recovery is long-lasting and difficult and not always successful. Many patients have considerable difficulties with returning to their traditional lifestyle, work and family life. This is why the rehabilitation and counseling of patients with a traumatic brain injury is essential for their successful recovery and re-integration into their social life but rehabilitation counseling still cannot cure irrevocable changes that occur to patients after a traumatic brain injury but such counseling just helps them to keep on living with their health issues.Rehabilitation ; Types Of Rehabilitation Paper
Traumatic brain injury and the need of rehabilitation of patients
A traumatic brain injury is a serious condition that affects the brain of patients that may trigger the development of serious problems with functioning of diverse and vitally important functions and systems of human body. In fact, a severe traumatic brain injury should be considered a chronic medical condition that requires professional care and support for a very long time (Combs & Freedman, 2012). Patients suffering a traumatic brain injury undergo a surgery but their recovery does not end up, when the surgery is completed successfully. Instead, they need a long period of rehabilitation, during which they can restore their physiological functions as much as they can. At the same time, patients also need to restore their psychological condition and become accustomed to the new life after a traumatic brain injury because, as a rule, people cannot return to the lifestyle, which they used to lead before the injury. Instead, a traumatic brain injury leads to the disability of patients, which severity differs depending on the severity of the injury.
Variations in injury severity require services for individuals with mild TBI, where one helps to control persisting symptoms, such as dizziness, headache, and difficulty concentrating and for individuals in a vegetative state, where one attempts to optimize bodily integrity and the odds of cognitive recovery (Whyte, 1998). In this regard, the medical treatment of patients is necessary. Differences in the nature and location of the neuropathology also lead to varied needs, since patients can present with virtually any constellation of cognitive, motor, and behavioral impairments. Finally, an individual’s social context shapes rehabilitation needs (Whyte, 1998). Those with little social support must reach much higher levels of independence to survive outside a formal service system than those with well-developed social networks and financial resources (Whyte, 1998). Therefore, it is not only the medication and medical treatment that patients need but also it is the rehabilitation and counseling which are crucial for the successful recovery of patients after a traumatic brain injury.Rehabilitation ; Types Of Rehabilitation Paper
Therefore, the early rehabilitation interventions can decrease the disability of patients or, to put it more precisely, to minimize its negative impact on their life. Even in case of a severe traumatic brain injury, the early rehabilitation counseling can help patients to recover more successfully compared to patients, who do not receive such counseling services because patients learn to live with their health problems faster and adapt to the new life easier (Enns, 1993). In fact, researchers (Atkinson, Thompson & Grant, 1993) recommend the early intervention as an effective way to increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation counseling because the earlier the rehabilitation counseling begins the better for clients.
A severe as well as mild traumatic brain injury may lead to other changes, which may seem to be not related to the injury but still can be triggered by it. This is why the long-lasting rehabilitation is crucial for patients with a traumatic brain injury. At the same time, counselors working with patients with a traumatic brain injury should be aware of differences in the patient population because this difference can influence consistently the treatment of patients and their rehabilitation program. Counselors should take into consideration specificities of their clients because the elaboration of the personalized approach to each client helps counselors to increase the effectiveness of counseling services (Neacsiu, Ward-ciesielski & Linehan, 2012). Counselors should match specific needs of each client. In this regard, generalized approaches will not be as effective as personalized ones (Palma & Stanley, 2002).
Rehabilitation counseling should deal with lasting disability, and low quality of life, with a complex range of physical, cognitive, behavioral and emotional disturbance all should help patients to tackle their problems and become a part of their community, taking a proactive position and developing a new lifestyle. One of the main tasks of rehabilitation counselors is to help clients to adapt to the new lifestyle because they cannot return to the lifestyle, which they used to lead before the injury has occurred (Heppner, Rogers, & Lee, 1990). This is why the assistance of counselors can help them to return to the normal life through developing new social relations, developing new priorities, and so on.Rehabilitation ; Types Of Rehabilitation Paper
Cognitive rehabilitation therapy
In actuality, the cognitive rehabilitation therapy is one of the most prospective therapies that can make the fulcrum of the rehabilitation counseling program for patients suffering from a traumatic brain injury. The cognitive rehabilitation therapy is one form of therapy available for patients with traumatic brain injury, who as a result of their injury suffer from cognitive deficits such as memory loss or attention problems. Individuals with traumatic brain injury often need a variety of therapeutic interventions including physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, psychotherapy, vocational therapy and pharmacologic therapy (Crane & Joyce, 1991).
The delivery of cognitive rehabilitation therapy varies depending on the particular deficits resulting from traumatic brain injury, on the provider, and on the treatment setting. There continues to be much debate among providers about when to initiate treatment, what specific treatment strategies to employ, what intensity or dose of treatment to provide, and for how long to provide treatment (Brown, 2006). However, the rehabilitation should be always accompanied by counseling services which should start as soon as possible to facilitate the rehabilitation of patients.
The restorative approaches focuses on the steady recovery of patients to regain their lifestyle, which they used to lead before they had suffered the injury. The rehabilitation counseling should focus on the restoration of basic skills and abilities and development of positive behavioral patterns in patients to tackle the problem of their disability since they cannot perform certain tasks or functions, which they used to perform successfully before they suffered the injury. Counselors should help patients to restore their abilities as much as possible and help them to understand that their disability makes their life different but there is the way and reason for living their life happily and successfully, in spite of the disability.
When the compensatory approach is applied, counselors should focus on the compensation of disability by other functions or skills that clients preserve. Counselors should help clients to determine new priorities in their life, which could make their disability insignificant for them. As a result, patients just shift to new priorities and ignore their disability that does not interfere in their daily life. Cognitive therapy helps clients to regain basic skills and abilities to lead the new lifestyle and continue their social and cultural life after the traumatic brain injury.
In fact, counselors applying the cognitive rehabilitation therapy should be aware of the fact that this approach involves the complex of measures that contribute to the complex rehabilitation and recovery of patients along with the restoration of their skills and abilities and minimization of the negative impact of their disability through development of cognitive skills and abilities of patients that help them to compensate their disability.In case of patients with a traumatic brain injury, counselors should choose the approach, which is the most efficient for the particular patient. This is why before starting the rehabilitation counseling, counselors should conduct the large scale evaluation of the condition of clients and their health problems. On the ground of such analysis, they can determine which approach will be the most efficient for the particular patient.Rehabilitation ; Types Of Rehabilitation Paper
Affective rehabilitation counseling
Another approach to the rehabilitation counseling of clients with a traumatic brain injury is the affective rehabilitation based on the treatment of the emotional condition of individuals through the rational explanation and evaluation of their condition and current position. Some researchers (Weinrach, 1990) estimate that affective rehabilitation counseling is the treatment of unreasonable by reason. What is meant here is the fact that emotions are unreasonable but their pressure may be extremely strong. As a result, clients with a traumatic brain injury cannot always cope with their emotions. They may feel desperate, while, in some cases, their emotional turmoil can trigger the development of serious psychological and health problems, such as a severe depression (Crane & Joyce, 1991). In such a situation, the assistance of counselors should help clients to cope with their emotional condition. The affective rehabilitation approach stands on the ground of the rational evaluation of the position of clients and rational treatment of their emotional problems. What is meant here is the fact that clients with emotional problems should learn to treat their problems rationally. They should grow confident that some of their failures are temporary and they can cope with them, if they are persisting in their efforts. They should grow aware of the fact that their physical and emotional state is the result of the injury and they can cope with their problems, if they follow recommendations of health care professionals and counselors, while emotional breakdowns have a negative impact on their recovery and rehabilitation.
In actuality, the affective approach to rehabilitation counseling of clients with a traumatic brain injury is quite popular today and its elements are widely-implemented in the contemporary counseling (Shadish & Baldwin, 2003). Affective approach has a particularly significant potential in relation to counseling clients with a traumatic brain injury because their emotional condition is extremely unstable and vulnerable to the impact of multiple factors, which clients cannot always cope with without the assistance of rehabilitation counselors.
Behavioral rehabilitation counseling
Along with cognitive and affective approaches to rehabilitation counseling, behavioral approach may be applied to counseling clients with a traumatic brain injury. Behavioral rehabilitation counseling focuses on the development of positive behavioral patterns and suppression of negative ones (Pedersen, 2005). The behavioral rehabilitation involves the detailed analysis of the behavior of clients and the identification of dysfunctional behavioral patterns. A counselor should identify those patterns accurately and start working on their elimination along with the motivation of positive or target behavioral patterns.
However, researchers (Ponterotto, 2008) point out that to develop positive behavioral patterns and eliminate dysfunctional ones successfully, rehabilitation counselors should be able to understand their clients, their needs, psychological and cultural specificities. Therefore, the application of the behavioral approach to rehabilitation counseling starts with the analysis and evaluation of the condition and personality of each client. In such a way, rehabilitation counselors can identify key issues that affect consistently the current condition of their clients and, on the ground of the collected information, they can start the long lasting rehabilitation counseling.Rehabilitation ; Types Of Rehabilitation Paper
In fact, the work with clients with a traumatic brain injury involves the long lasting rehabilitation and counselors should come prepared to develop a long-run program that can have multiple options of its application and further development. For example, counselors can take into consideration the fact that the behavior of clients may change in the course of the rehabilitation under the impact of the specific counseling strategy. The motivation of positive behavioral patterns will raise the problem of the development of a long-run motivational strategy, while rehabilitation counselors may face difficulties to keep their clients motivated in a long-run perspective, especially if clients have substantial difficulties with their recovery and their disability provoked by their traumatic brain injury prevents them from the development of positive interpersonal relations, finding or returning to their employment, and other issues.
Conclusion
Thus, the rehabilitation of patients with a traumatic brain injury is essential for their recovery and minimization of negative effects of their disability on their life and self-esteem. In this regard, counselors conducting the rehabilitation of patients with a traumatic brain injury can use the cognitive rehabilitation therapy as the fulcrum of the rehabilitation strategy. However, before choosing the specific approach, counselors should conduct the detailed analysis of their patient’s condition and determine which approach will be more effective for patients. Moreover, the rehabilitation counseling should start at possible earlier stage to facilitate the recovery of patients and their return to their active, social life. Rehabilitation counselors can use any approach which they consider to be effective in relation to their clients, including cognitive, affective or behavioral approaches. The point is the development of the rehabilitation counseling strategy that will be effective in relation to every particular client that means that counselors should be able to develop the personalized approach to each client. In such a way, they can maximize the effectiveness of their rehabilitation counseling program. Finally, rehabilitation counselors working with clients with a traumatic brain injury should come prepared to a long-lasting rehabilitation counseling program and special needs of their clients.Rehabilitation ; Types Of Rehabilitation Paper
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