Cognitive rehabilitation in people with acquired brain injury
Written by:The acquired brain damage, either by traumatic brain injury (TBI ), cerebral vascular accident (CVA ), tumor, and so on, is an important health problem in our society.
Occur each year in Spain 80,000 new cases of TBI, 923 of which generate a severe disability, and stroke figures around 122,000 new cases, 1,300 of which will suffer a severe disability are located.
Advances in the field of medicine and technology have made possible greater survival of people with brain injury. These people, however, can present a number of cognitive and behavioral deficits that physicists have a significant impact on the individual himself and his family, social and work environment.
Among the consequences of brain damage, the neuropsychological alterations, which include cognitive ( attention, language, memory, executive functions ) and emotional behavior are highly disabling.
The need for neuropsychological rehabilitation arises when considering the long term and their impact on functional adaptation, independence and quality of life these sequelae, not only the affected person but also his family.
Within the neuropsychological rehabilitation, cognitive rehabilitation is defined as intervention strategy that helps patients and their families to live and cope with or reduce cognitive deficits arising from neurological injury and is essential as an element of the neurorehabilitation process more to improve activities of daily living and promote reintegration.
To address this need rehabilitation Institut Guttmann started in 2004 the development of the Platform Rehabilitation PREVIRNEC®, with the help of the Department d’ Universities, Research and Information Society ( DURSI ) of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It is a collaborative project that led by Institut Guttmann, has continued its development and implementation, with the participation of various universities, technology centers and professionals who have contributed their knowledge.
PREVIRNEC®It is a computerized telemedicine platform that allows for intensive, personalized and supervised cognitive rehabilitation. It is based on the development of a clinical tele-rehabilitation program that, based on care models developed to date, allows the neuropsychologist, from the neuropsychological evaluation, designing custom proposing specific therapeutic programs for rehabilitation of attention tasks, language, memory and executive functions. Thus the cognitive aspects that limit the patient's functionality and, consequently, their daily work activities.
It is a tool with great potential in the field of cognitive rehabilitation and a chance that provide the technologies of the information society and communication, as it allows intensify rehabilitation, continuously monitor the patient's performance and customize.
From the year 2006 when the platform was installed at the Institut Guttmann until now, have received more cognitive treatment of 500 patients with acquired brain damage: TCE, AVC, postsurgical patients, cerebral anoxia, and so. In late 2008 the clinical phase of extension in various hospitals and day began: Dia Center Francoli in Tarragona, Sant Josep Healthcare Centre Igualada, Dia Center Aspid Lleida, Healthcare Centre Sant Jaume i Santa Magdalena de Mataro, Healthcare Centre Santa Creu de Vic, Barcelones Multipurpose Center and brain injury associations.
For several months, in order to expand the possibilities of rehabilitation and to continue treatment at a distance, eliminating geographic barriers to system nontax hospital rehab but people with clinical improvement criteria, over 30 patients have had the benefits of telerehabilitation and have benefited from the service provided by the Platform PREVIRNEC® ;, receive for three months the daily therapeutic program a neuropsychologist pattern from the hospital and, via Internet, the patient receives and executes at his home.
PREVIRNEC®It is an innovative product that provides an opportunity to enhance the benefits of cognitive rehabilitation, making it accessible to as many people, and is a particular and useful tool in the context of the rehabilitation of patients with brain damage.
From our experience in population with acquired brain injury, are working with different organizations to adapt and transfer the contents to the current field of dementia, mental health and child neurodevelopment.
