Objectives: Best Practice AND Online

On Friday I attended an all-day workshop at the University of Queensland for Research Officers working in NGOs. Its purpose was to build capacity for research in the Human Services NGO sector, through building relationships between the University's researchers and the service providers/practitioners in the Human Services sector.

I don't work for an NGO, however my interest was to discover more about how research works in the Human Services sector, access to funding for research, and how that might be applied so that specific, targeted brain training becomes more accessible.

I found it a very worthwhile day, meeting people working in the NGO sector and researchers from UQ.  In particular I met people from Synapse, the not-for-profit association supporting people with acquired brain injury (ABI), and the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Support from UQ (based in Ipswich).




The latter is funded jointly with the Queensland Government to improve the quality of life for adults with intellectual or cognitive disability and challenging behaviour.   This group has developed a framework for developing a comprehensive research agenda for people with intellectual disability and challenging behaviours.  I learnt that the focus of this group is on positive behaviour support, especially for people with severe intellectual and cognitive disability. It sounded like it would be a stretch for that group to turn its attention to those with mild cognitive impairment.  However, the framework for developing a comprehensive research agenda may be a good base from which to start in developing a research agenda for people with milder cognitive impairments.

Based on what I learnt from the workshop, I have drafted my own vision to improve the services available to people who fall between the cracks of 'normal' cognitive ability and severe cognitive disability. How many people are on the disability pension, possibly on supported wage, who with some effective intervention to overcome their cognitive impairments, could move into gainful employment and eventually off, or receive reduced, government support?

My two objectives are:

Objective 1: Evidence-based brain training exercises become incorporated into best practice treatment options for cognitive impairments

Objective 2: Evidence-based best practice cognitive assessments and correlated brain training exercises become more widely accessible through online delivery



I have begun developing the compelling 'why' for various stakeholders:

• People with cogntive impairments
• Carers
• Human Services Providers/Practitioners
• Health Care Practitioners/Specialists
• Educational Services
• Government - Political
• Government - Administrative
• Employers/Business
• Community/Society

Also the How? and the Who?

I learnt that evaluation (efficacy) measures need to be determined collaboratively to incorporate user, practitioner, and researcher perspectives.

...

I wasn't at home on Friday, so no brain training happened for A-One, despite his insistence that I don't need to be there while he does it. 

Met Barbara Arrowsmith-Young this morning

My husband and I attended a breakfast talk by Barbara Arrowsmith-Young in Brisbane today.

Barbara's talk reinforced to me that the strength of the Arrowsmith program when compared to online brain training is that the Arrowsmith program is carefully focussed on a person's weak cognitive function, keeping it isolated from cognitive strengths which might compensate.  Whereas online brain training is likely to be more general.

I also found the talk very worthwhile in meeting some people in Brisbane who have an interest in this area, including those who have a special interest in any adult programs.  I came away with some business cards to follow up, as well as an Arrowsmith Parent Adocacy Guide - to gain support from schools to implement the program.

Again I came away convinced that evidence based research and results will be important to brain training programs becoming more mainstream.

Where to from here?

It seems to me that the next stage of this neuroplasticity wave will be to produce a more significant body of evidence based results, presumably with control groups, so that brain training can secure funding to become more mainstream - not just for learning support in schools, but also to help adults such as my son A-One, who missed this boat when he was at school.

 

 

So, if my blog helps to contribute to the evidence base, I hope it ultimately means improved accessibility to brain training for people of any age with cognitive impairments.