Brain Injury Rehabilitation

The goal of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program is to provide excellent evidence-based rehabilitation care as a unified treatment team. We believe patients and their families should have access to the gold standard of brain injury care with a patient and family systems-centered, transdisciplinary team approach.

Expert, Compassionate Care Across the Recovery Continuum

For hospitalized patients, we provide care through a structured, comprehensive program for patients with moderate to severe TBI or other acquired brain injury, including disorders of consciousness. This program offers inpatient services in the acute care and post-acute inpatient rehabilitation settings, including physicians with expertise in brain injury medicine, physical and occupational therapies, cognitive rehabilitation and other speech-language therapy services, neuropsychological assessment, rehabilitation psychotherapy, recreational therapy, social work and case manager support, and family training and education that is tailored to each patient and family.

When indicated, patients can then transition to our outpatient neurorehabilitation center, MedRehab. Our outpatient center offers all of the services listed above, with a focus on maximizing patient independence and achieving person-centered goals in the post-acute phase of recovery. Our specialized services also include driving therapy and on-road driving assessment, cognitive therapy emphasizing development of compensatory strategies, ongoing neuropsychology and rehabilitation psychotherapy to inform treatment goals and aid with adjustment to life changes, and initiation of vocational planning for returning to work or other meaningful daily activities.

Concussion Management

For patients who have experienced mild TBI (concussion) we offer an evidence-based, time-limited comprehensive recovery program designed to get a patient’s recovery on track, or back on track, quickly. For those with recent experience of concussion, our acute concussion clinic provides a comprehensive educational session. This includes an explanation of the science behind concussion recovery, as well as dispels several common myths about concussion, and provides evidence-based recommendations about how to reengage in activities, and coping strategies for managing acute symptoms in a way that allows the patient to get back to everyday life.

For those whose injuries occurred more than six months ago, our program includes a six-week group intervention with more in-depth exploration of strategies to optimize functioning and improve mood. This includes consults with our physiatrists, and options for focused, time-limited therapies to optimize functional cognition and improve symptom management for pain, balance, and sensory issues. As with our inpatient program, our concussion programs focus on evidence-based, patient-centered care with an emphasis on patient values, patient-specific goals, and optimizing functional outcomes.

Our Philosophy

We emphasize moving our patients quickly and efficiently through the system of care, as well as keeping them physically moving and cognitively active. Our approach emphasizes patient empowerment and self-management. Patients are expected to engage collaboratively with their therapists in person-centered goal-setting with a universal emphasis on follow-through and problem solving.

Patients’ needs are considered from the biopsychosocial model when managing and optimizing recovery from TBI; that is, we focus on function from the patient’s and family’s point of view. Knowing our patients and their care partners as individuals and families is critical in establishing what the functional goals of treatment will be, whether it’s returning to work, returning to driving, playing with grandchildren, or living independently. Our providers focus on each patient’s values with an emphasis on teaching long-term behavioral management strategies.