Cognitive Rehab
The Cognitive Rehabilitation Program at Direct RehabMed is led by Ritesh Prasad, M.D. and Stephen K. Martin, Ph.D. Dr. Prasad is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and has extensive experience in the treatment of brain injured individuals. Dr. Martin is a neuropsychologist with more than 12 years of experience in treating brain injured individuals as well as other neurologically impaired patients, and has served as Director of other interdisciplinary brain injury programs prior to joining the Direct RehabMed team.
Dr. Prasad and Dr. Martin work with a team of skilled Speech Language Pathologists, Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Licensed Professional Counselors, and Licensed Vocational Social Workers in achieving patient goals. The team of Speech Language Pathologists and Occupational Therapists under the direction of Dr. Martin addresses any diagnosed cognitive impairments. Cognitive retraining activities may include sensory/perceptual function, visuospatial function, attention and concentration, receptive and expressive language, memory and learning tasks, logical analysis tasks, and executive reasoning strategies. All therapies are performed with one on one patient to clinician interaction. The team of Physical Therapists addresses any functional deficits resultant to a brain injury, such as balance disturbances, ataxia, gait disturbances, etc., as well as any co-morbid diagnoses such as musculoskeletal cervical injuries. Our behavioral specialists provide counseling to our patients and patients' families, working with each patient individually to address emotional impairments resultant to their head injury, such as depression and awareness issues, as well as family education.
The brain injury program at Direct RehabMed accepts patients on an outpatient basis with mild or mild to moderate head traumas as determined by evaluation from our Nueropsychologist and Medical Director. Like other interdisciplinary cognitive rehabilitation programs, our program focuses on improving patient independence and awareness. However, unlike many other programs, the program at Direct RehabMed emphasizes vocational rehabilitation and return to work.
The following list illustrates typical diagnoses for patients that may be candidates for admission into our program:
- closed head injury
- CVA/stroke
- Minor head trauma with or without loss of consciousness
- Penetrating head injury
- post concussion syndrome
- electric shock
- toxic exposure
- anoxic incident
The interdisciplinary cognitive rehabilitation program at Direct RehabMed utilizes the following admission criteria:
- neurological injury or illness that has resulted in a cognitive impairment
- the patient's level of cognitive impairment is not greater than a mild to moderate range as determined by neuropsychological evaluation and patient can be treated appropriately in an outpatient setting
- patient does not present with behavioral impairments that have resulted in suicidal tendencies or injurious behaviors towards others
- The patient's referring physician has noted that patient is medically stable and is not in need of medical support equipment or technologies such as catheters, feeding tubes, etc.