Brain Injury Treatment at NWRTW
At Northwest Return to Work, (NWRTW) person-centered care is at the center of our Brain Injury Rehabilitation Treatment (BIRT) program. We approach brain injury rehabilitation by listening to and developing rehabilitative goals for each individual.
Crucial components of our program include the following rehabilitative standards:
The patient’s experience and needs should be understood in terms of their new reality.
Neither our diagnostic terms nor our objective assessments can capture the entirety of someone’s experience when it comes to brain injuries.
After an injury, clients’ abilities to engage in valued identities, roles, and activities are diminished. An injury can be all-consuming, and weeks if not months of life are spent managing medical conditions and coping with changes to their perception of who they are and what they can do.
Through open dialogue, the BIRT team at NWRTW works to empower the client to be the ‘expert of their life.’ Looking beyond a diagnosis, we explore what is important to the client and then identify their barriers. During rehabilitation, the BIRT team finds creative and individualized solutions and provides strength-based support as the person adjusts to their new reality.
The person-centered approach.
After a traumatic brain injury (TBI), individuals often find that time that was once dedicated to meaningful roles as a worker, a family member, or a friend, is now allocated to managing and attending medical appointments. At NWRTW, our goal is to help clients reintegrate into their meaningful and purposeful life roles. In our time together, we get to know our clients beyond their diagnosis and job. This person-centered approach creates client-practitioner relationships that help clients engage in activities that are important to their individual roles and identities, increasing their perception of their competence and strengths.
The importance of treating trust as a currency.
The creation of trust between the client and the practitioner is the bedrock upon which rehabilitative gains can be made. At the initial evaluation, the practice team identifies the client’s areas of strength which helps them to evaluate rehabilitative success.
We communicate with the client’s existing medical care team, educate family members and caregivers, and advocate to policymakers to further develop vocational environments that promote a safe and sustainable return to work.
We approach problems from multiple directions to create fully supportive solutions.
As an interdisciplinary team, we are well-versed in playing to the strengths of each member of the team. We maximize our potential for skilled intervention by utilizing our individual scopes of practice to approach problems from multiple directions to create fully supportive solutions. We also recognize that our clients are integral members of this interdisciplinary team.
Each client is the expert of their own case and their own experience.
At NWRTW our Individualized care is based on a strengths-based approach. We aim to provide a “just right” level of challenge that provides each client with opportunities for success from the moment they start the program.
Learn more about our Brain Injury Rehabilitation Treatment Program HERE.