Psychology

The psychology team provides a cohesive service to both inpatients and daypatients and offers the following types of help:

Neuropsychological Assessment

Neuropsychological assessment is a highly specialised assessment of cognitive functions.  It allows us to assess how well various cognitive functions are working after some kind of brain injury and to build up a picture of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Areas of cognitive functioning that can be assessed include: attention, concentration, speed of information processing, memory, language, executive functioning (i.e. reasoning and planning abilities) and visuospatial functions.  It also allows us to measure improvement over time or advise on timing of client goals e.g. whether return to work is possible now. The assessment would also include assessment of the person’s level of insight into their difficulties, level of adjustment, and degree of psychological difficulty.

Psychological therapy

An individual may be offered one-to-one therapy to help address current cognitive difficulties (e.g. memory rehabilitation) and emotional difficulties and adjustment. The therapy can help propose strategies that may overcome some of the difficulties, help emotional adaptation to difficulties and devise achievable goals for the future.  Therapeutic models used include Cognitive Behaviour Therapy where the aim is to identify thoughts, feelings and behaviours and their impact on an individual’s adjustment, emotions, and behaviour.  Sometimes family work may also be recommended if it is felt that this might be useful.

Group work

We run different groups at different times throughout the year.  Such groups include Memory groups, Anger Management groups and Orientation groups.  Between 6-12 people attend such groups, and the emphasis is on teaching strategies to help manage difficulties, helping people adjust to their difficulties and encouraging peer support and discussion.

Capacity assessments

Part of the Psychology team’s role can be conducting capacity assessments. Capacity regarding a person’s ability to manage their finances or to live independently following a brain injury might be assessed for example. Mental capacity is not a stable, global characteristic, ie a person may have capacity to make some decisions but not others, thus it is context specific. Capacity can also change over time, requiring a repeat assessment. Assessment is tailored to individual needs and abilities, using a range of abilities.