Community-based neuropsychological rehabilitation in the cosmopolitan setting

Abstract

In the developed, urban world, professional neuropsychological rehabilitation services have increasingly tried to move into the community to facilitate community integration, acceptance of rehabilitation, acceptance of the person with disabilities in the community, and the generalisation of cognitive, emotional, and social skills. This promising trend has only partially realised its goals. In the developing, rural world, rehabilitation has worked directly with community resources towards similar goals through the World Health Organization's community-based rehabilitation model, but with limited focus on neuropsychological disabilities (Judd & DeBoard, 2007). We have previously proposed a neuropsychological extension of this model. We now propose a blending of these trends to address developed, urban community needs with respect to people with neuropsychological disabilities. The approach involves expanding objectives, funding, training, and research measures to address community change. Techniques include: (1) involvement of community members (including people with disabilities) in planning, decision-making, and evaluation of programmes; (2) discovering and using available community resources; (3) teaching community members about disabilities, rights, and attitudes and training them in rehabilitation and advocacy skills; and (4) coordination between rehabilitation, education, social, vocational, and other community resources.

Keywords:

• Community-based rehabilitation
• Neuropsychological rehabilitation
• Person-centered planning
• Traumatic brain injury
• Disability accommodation