CCCW Brain Injury Program

Mission

 

The Chicago Center for Cognitive Wellness is committed to helping people care for their brains.  Many of our patients have experienced a decline in their thinking skills, often as the result of injury to the brain caused by head trauma, stroke, surgery or infection/disease.

 

We aim to fill the ever needed treatment gap that exists in the post-acute phase of recovery.  Driven by emerging science that the adult brain can continue to grow and change throughout life and that recovery from brain damage, while slowed, can continue for many years, we help our patients identify and work toward individual goals for maximal personal recovery.

 

In light of this personalized touch, we have also come to learn that our patients benefit most from a multi-pronged approach that includes a combination of the following services.  Therefore, we have designed this Brain Injury Program to help our patients maximize gains.

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Program

 

• 2-day per week commitment for 10-14 weeks, followed by ongoing, weekly individual services as needed

 

CogSMART Cognitive Skills & Rehabilitation Group, Meets Weekly for 2 Hours

This evidence-based group, developed and tested by the Portland VA Medical Center and the University of California at San Diego, provides skills that help people with brain injuries adapt and improve daily functioning. Skill training includes: memory, attention, planning, and organizing as well as self-care and stress coping.

 

Individual Cognitive Rehabilitation Training and/or Psychotherapy, 1-2 Sessions per Week

1-1 Sessions help patients identify and work toward personalized goals for better thinking and daily functioning.  Often these sessions appear similar to the work completed in the CogSMART group, but tend to take on a more personalized touch in terms of identifying and working through motivational issues.  Very often the cause of the brain injury was a traumatic event, so identifying and working through common feelings of fear and grief are a focus of this treatment as well.

 

RehaCom Computerized Cognitive Training, 30-45 minutes, Twice Weekly

Developed and used widely in Germany for over two decades, this evidence-based program for cognitive skills training is provided to patients based on specific domains of cognitive decline.  We use it over “at-home” products such as Lumosity because it allows your provider to focus training on the skills most in need (which are typically the hardest tasks that people often avoid on self-guided, at-home programs).  RehaCom also provides our trainers with a wealth of data to help both trainer and patient understand and utilize strengths and strategies for better translation to daily life skills.